The Sun Will Die
by Ophiuchus Moon
Summary: Based on Ultra Sun, follow Gladion, Juniper (Decidueye), Incinera (Incineroar), and Primeval (Primarina) as they defend Alola against the Tapu, a clan of fairies who want to be worshiped. Though Alola wants freedom, the ultra beasts that the Tapu protect it from may be far more dangerous.
1. Child of Diamonds

Gladion Null was eleven years old when he was told he would die.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise. Everyone dies at some point, though his mother's organization strove to end disease and ultimately death. Yet to learn that death was coming, and would take him on his eighteenth birthday, when he should have inherited Aether—the knowledge was devastating and unwelcome.

"You're lying," Lusamine hissed. In her white dress and tall boots, she was like an angel defending her son's right to live. "My son will live a long life. He's the heir to Aether! We have access to every medicine, diagnostic tool, and procedure known to humankind."

"Can any of that prevent death?" rumbled Hala, the island elder. He reached out with a large, brown hand to steady Gladion's shaking. "I'm sorry, truly."

"I don't care if you're sorry!" Gladion spat, knocking aside Hala's hand. "You cursed me. You lied to me."

"I wish it was a lie," Hala admitted.

"I won't die," Gladion repeated. "Not even if I grow old—I'll never be old, either. Aether will make us stop aging so you'll be the last old man in Alola, and you'll be miserable."

Hala didn't answer, and Gladion whirled around and fled from the ivory reception hall. He kicked off his expensive dress shoes, less concerned about the stories of poorer Alolans stealing shoes from right under people's feet than yearning for the freedom of feeling sand and stone on his bare feet. The land spread its warmth, though Gladion knew it wouldn't be for long. Every seven years, the climate in Alola shifted to a new epoque. For as long as Gladion could remember, the sun had shone, but after sunset, it would hide behind Alola's next epoque. A few rays might escape once in a while, but the island would be dominated by a raging sandstorm, or a ceaseless torrent, or blistering winds, or any other weather imaginable.

The stone's smoothness wore away to abrasive cracks and bumps that cut at Gladion's feet. Aether's polished grounds gave way to the rest of Alola, which belonged to a variety of people that Gladion knew only as stereotypes: the fat merchants who squandered their earnings in the City of Gold, the street rats who ate garbage and bathed in sewers, the poor villagers who lived in mud huts, the fairy hunters who wore the bones of their enemies as jewellery.

"You don't belong here," commented a boy who looked to be around Gladion's age, maybe one or two years older. His amber eyes shifted to blue as he stepped out of the shadows, and his brown skin took on a silver hue. "Just look at you."

You're dying, and you'll be dead seven years from now, thought Gladion, though he didn't look away from the street thug. Like the stories claimed, he wore wristbands woven from fine bones and teeth. Chains dripped from his neck, casting a harsher sheen than his silvery skin.

"Your clothes are made from diamonds, and I'd bet three fairy eyes your gloves are made from authentic dragonair skin."

"Look at you," Gladion retorted. "Whose bones are on your wrists, street urchin?"

"At least I killed them myself," the other boy hissed, and plunged his fists into the ground.

Boulders rose from the stones, the ground shifting as it raced toward Gladion. "You're a rock type!" The diamond-clad boy exclaimed as he leaped out of the way.

"My name is Lycan," the rock type shouted, thrusting his arms to direct the boulders faster.

Gladion knew he couldn't dodge the boulders in time, so he halted them. The stones crumbled and the ground adjusted itself with only a few more cracks to indicate any disturbance.

"What did you do to my powers?!" Lycan yelled, looking at his hands in dismay. "Screw it, I don't need rocks to beat you to a pulp."

Lycan pulled out a pipe and swung it at Gladion, who ducked and swept Lycan's feet from under him. So this must be how the rats steal people's shoes. Though Lycan was stronger and armed, Gladion had more skill, having been trained by the finest fighters Aether could hire.

"STOP!" a girl bellowed.

Both Lycan and Gladion paused, Lycan's pipe inches from Gladion's face, the blond boy's foot suspended over the rock type's clavicle.

A teenage girl strutted towards them. Her baggy pants swished, and her long, pink-and-yellow hair flared out like oricorio feathers. A purple insignia branded her bare stomach, and kohl fluttered from her lashes.

"Big Sister Pluma!" Lycan exclaimed. He dropped his pipe, and Gladion hopped back to avoid it crushing his toes. Lycan dropped to one knee, and Gladion glanced between his attacker and the girl, who was a few years older and didn't look like anyone important enough to bow to.

"Lycan," Pluma purred with a hint of a threat, "why are you picking a fight with Aether's heir?"

Lycan's eyes widened and flashed to amber. The silver in his skin faded back to brown. "This is the so-called child of diamonds? He looks like a white rattata with fancy clothes."

Gladion kicked a pebble to smack Lycan's eye, but Pluma flashed out a whip that dissolved the rock. She's a poison type. Gladion suppressed a shudder. Poison wasn't an uncommon type, but it was one of the cruelest types against fairies.

"Lycan," Pluma ordered, her voice still mellifluous despite her sudden lash, "get the boss."

"I'll bring Big Brother Guzma here at once, ma'am!"

Lycan sprinted away, his long arms dangling awkwardly at his sides. Pluma swung onto a dented crate and sat cross-legged, brushing her fingers through her vibrant curls. Gladion wondered if he should strike up conversation with her—she'd stopped his fight with Lycan, but he didn't want to have to fight her instead.

Before Gladion could think of something to say, the ocean parted, and a light mist sprayed him and Pluma. A teenage boy around Pluma's age stood with his hands on his hips. His white hair had dark roots, and cuts nicked his light brown skin. He wore a skull around his neck; the smaller mandible indicated the skull had belonged to a fairy.

"Hey, Big Brother Guzma!" Pluma waved like an eager little sister.

Gladion blinked. It seemed like Lycan had only just left. How did Guzma get here so fast?

Guzma swaggered over to Gladion, who craned his neck up to meet the older boy's heavy stare. "Are you looking for a new home?"

Gladion startled, taking a step back. Though he'd run away, he intended to return to his comfortable life in Aether. Lusamine could be stern, but she was kind. And every time his father, Slasher, returned from his travels, he brought magnificent presents.

"You don't need to leave your current home if you don't want to," Guzma amended. "I'm asking if you want another home."

Tension would haunt Aether after Hala's omen. Lusamine's scientists would work to devise a treatment, some sort of procedure, to ensure Gladion's longevity. Gladion wanted a place to escape constant reminders of his looming demise. "Sure."

Guzma jutted his chin at a petite girl who had joined Pluma on the crate. "Kill her."

Gladion recognized the girl as a fairy. She had thin wings that refracted light like a prism, but not every fairy had wings. It was her finer structure, the more defined bones and kaleidoscopic eyes that gave her away.

"I don't want to be a fairy hunter."

"Skulls aren't fairy hunters—we're freedom protectors," Guzma retorted. "All fairies are descendants of the Tapu clan. They want Alola to worship them as gods, but we're a free people. If you don't kill her, you will bow to her someday."

Gladion didn't believe that. The fairy girl seemed too friendly, gesturing to Pluma's colorful hair. Pluma caught him staring and shoved the fairy at him. "Finish her off."

As though taken over by a primeval instinct, Gladion grabbed the smaller person and turned his back to Guzma. His fingers hesitated around her throat. He couldn't bring himself to strangle her. The girl trembled and let out a whimper before dropping onto the sand. Before the tide carried her away, Gladion saw the cut at her nape. He recognized a poison's effect when he saw it.

Guzma hadn't seen. He grunted. "Welcome to the Skulls, Gladion Null."

The sun dipped below the horizon, marking the beginning of the longest night and a new epoque. Clouds gathered and rain poured, washing away the dead fairy.


	2. Trained by Legends

Hala's sugar cane squelched in the mud as he hobbled toward the stone hut. In the seven-year torrent, straw houses had been washed away and the sand turned to mud. To the coming-of-age generation whose childhood had been defined by sunshine and warmth, Alola was unrecognizable. Hala was old enough to understand that Alola would never be recognizable, for it shifted drastically with every epoque. He had lived through rain and sun, gales and a dreadful overcast, sandstorms and hail and more sunshine, a treacherous fog and a childhood of snow. Though he had no real memory of it, he had been told he was born in a torrent much like the one that defined the current epoque. The more it rained, the more memories he conjured in his imagination of his earliest days.

"You're getting old, Hala," said the young man who lived in the stone hut. His white coat appeared grey in the rain, and he lifted his goggles in salutation. "You should stay dry, or you'll catch cold."

"Ice types don't catch cold," Hala grunted, leaning on his sugar cane as he lowered himself into his host's reclining chair. "And champions don't stay dry. You're training the new generation hard, Kukui."

Kukui's eyes were unreadable behind his goggles. "You're not a champion anymore, Hala. You've served your island. Let the young ones handle the Tapu clan."

Hala frowned, his hairy fingers gripping the top of his sugar cane more tightly. Even in old age, his hands stayed strong; the muscle memory of an epoque of training never went away. "Can they handle the Tapu? Those fairies grow more relentless every era, especially as the world drifts away from old traditions. Secularism has given Alola freedom, Kukui, but it also makes the Tapu angrier."

Kukui tapped his goggles and projected a holographic screen. Hala knew the professor had developed the technology himself; Aether wanted no business with training the champions, so Kukui had no sponsor but his own brain.

The screen split into four quadrants, each marked by a symbol on the top left corner: a leaf for the plant type champion, a flame for fire, a raindrop for water, and a swirl for wind. In Hala's era, the four champions had been of ice, shadow, and light types, with a dragon who could create a cacophony that devastated the Tapu and taken her own hearing.

"I recruited six of the greatest warriors from Kalos and Hoenn," Kukui explained. "You're right that in this modern age, the Tapu would be angrier than ever. Your generation believed you were forsaken; this generation seeks to forsake the old gods." Though Hala couldn't see Kukui's eyes, he felt comforted by the younger man's proud grin. "The new champions are being trained by legends, Hala."

Hala reached out with his sugar cane and double-tapped the first quadrant, which showed the plant type champion.

"Juniper is different from most plant types," Kukui said, but Hala could see it for himself. The 18-year-old could summon leaves and elongate vines like any other plant type, but he had wings. Hala zoomed in further to get a better look at the pale brown and white feathers, and Kukui continued, "His wings most resemble that of an owl's, but they're finer than a hoothoot or noctowl's feathers, which are designed more for durability than nimbleness."

Hala zoomed out again, and grunted to acknowledge Juniper's elegant weaving between the palm trees. At a higher altitude soared another winged man, his feathers more streamlined than Juniper's.

"Fly higher, Jun!"

Juniper struggled to match the other man's altitude. "How do you make it look so easy, Ray?"

Ray laughed, his ombre hair a hint of the sunshine that hadn't graced Alola in almost seven years. "This should be easy for you, too. I've been mentoring you since you were a kid, Jun; I know what you're capable of."

Juniper flapped his wings and reached Ray's height. The rain pelted harder, the air was colder, and Jun found it trickier to navigate among the palm fronds than the slender trunks.

"Let's land," Ray decided, and swooped to an insane descent that took Jun's breath away. He hesitated before following. His wings were clumsier than Ray's, and a gust blew him off course a couple of times. I should be better than this, he thought as he landed as soundlessly as his mentor—one of his mentors, anyway.

A dark-skinned woman lunged at him, faster than he could put up his arms to defend himself. Ray intercepted the attack for him, the older man's slippers sliding in the mud as the woman shoved him back.

"I'm supposed to be training Jun, not you, Ray." The woman released Ray and turned on Juniper. Her dark green hood fell back, revealing a mane of waist-length black curls that gleamed in the humidity. Her emerald-green eyes met Jun's paler ones, and her apprentice cowed before her.

"Sorry, Zyga," Ray said, sticking his tongue out. "I couldn't help it; I never back down from a challenge, and you're known as the Island Reaper."

Zyga towered like the legendary character in Jun's story books. She was as tall as the men, and stronger. Yet she was no more godly than the rest of them. She snorted and said to Juniper, "Let's fight. Give me everything you got, trickster."

Juniper was ready now. When Zyga swung her sickle blade at him, he slipped through the blade's crescent arc and delivered a sharp punch at his mentor's chin.

Zyga reeled back, and Jun aimed a high kick at her forehead. She ducked and shifted the earth, making Jun lose his balance.

"You have wings, trickster, use them!"

Jun flew above her. She nodded, and he aimed a kick from the sky.

Zyga grabbed his foot, but Jun was prepared. He twisted his body as she wrenched his ankle, and used the momentum to kick her head with his other foot.

The two stumbled back, and then Zyga gasped as Ray severed her torso with a nearly invisible string.

"That's how you're supposed to finish off your opponent," Ray told Jun, who trembled at the sudden violence. "Do you know why the Tapu keep returning, era after era? It's because you champions hold onto your honor like it's more important than your lives."

"I... I can't..."

Zyga's legs kicked her upper body back onto its waist. Her torn shirt exposed dark brown skin that mended itself back together like fluid. "I'm the only earth type who can regenerate like this, but you, as a plant type, can't even heal a wounded animal. Ray is right, Juniper. Times are changing. Your generation might be the last to have formal training from masters. Forty-nine years from now, children may not know how to fight, and Alola will have no champions to protect it from the Tapu. You have to finish the Tapu off when the winter solstice comes."

"So I'm one of the last champions? But Alola has always had champions to defend its freedom!" Jun exclaimed. He'd grown up on stories of Hala the ice fighter, Jang the cacophonous dragon, and many other formidable warriors.

"You know," Ray commented, "the reason you're fighting the Tapu is to get rid of traditional ways."

"It's not tradition that I'm trying to protect," Juniper assured the older winged man. "It's the story. I want to be a hero like in the story books, where heroes don't kill, but they vanquish the villain. They win without becoming murderers."

Zyga put away her sickle and brushed a wet leaf off her shoulder. "So you'd say a villain kills and a hero doesn't?"

Jun nodded.

"Pathetic," Ray hissed. "The Tapu have never killed an Alolan, nor do they intend to, because a dead Alolan can't worship them. Do you think they aren't villains?"

Jun flinched. "I... I mean..."

"It isn't what you do that defines whether or not you're a hero," Ray continued. "It's why you do it. If you killed a fairy for the fun of it, or because your intent was to hurt the fairies, then you're no better than the Skulls. But if you killed a fairy to protect other people or yourself, then that changes things, doesn't it."

Jun nodded, accepting what Ray and Zyga were saying, though he wasn't sure he agreed.

Ray grinned and bumped his knuckles against Jun's head. "You're as naïve as my other apprentice."

"You should check on him," Zyga told Ray. "I'll continue training Juniper."

Ray didn't respond, but he took to the skies and flew away. He passed over the two fire types training by the hot springs, and laughed. "Go easy on him, Tiger."

Tiger rested at the edge of one of the hot pools, cleaning his toes in the water. "It might not look like it, but these pools are all connected. You could swim between them and emerge on the other side of the spring like your island's curly-haired dugtrio."

Tiger's apprentice twitched, stretching the stripes on his biceps. "Dugtrio are earth types everywhere. You won't find them swimming, Tiger."

Tiger sniffed. "I know, Incinera. I'm asking you to imagine. No—I'm asking you to swim between the pools. Practice creating a flame underwater and emerging with it as strong as an inferno." His toe flicked hot pool water at Incinera's feet, and the younger fire type hopped back. "Think you can do that, Sin?"

Sin growled as he grounded his stance and spun his arms, conjuring flames that spiralled into the sky despite the pouring rain. "Out of all the champions, I'm most disadvantaged by the weather, yet I can still use my fire power. I don't get why Hala chose a fire champion for an epoque of rain."

Champions were chosen at the beginning of the epoque when Alola expected the Tapu to return. Hala should have known it couldn't be easy for a fire type to battle in the rain. One of the Tapu was a water type, and Sin didn't want to go up against her.

"Hala knows what he's doing," Tiger grunted, leaning on his hammer to mimic the old man. "I'd reckon you're one of the strongest fire types in the world."

"Not the strongest?"

Tiger laughed. "I'm the strongest, Incinera. I could take on all the Tapu on my own! Koko's lightning, Lele's light, and Bulu's stupid dancing plants have nothing on me. I could even conquer Fini's water."

"Alola is a proud island," Incinera warned his mentor. "We won't let a foreigner fight our battles for us."

"I respect your island's spirit," Tiger acknowledged, "and your determination, and your elder's wisdom to assign a fire type to fight in an epoque of rain. The solstice is a delicate time when magic from various realms connect and your climate shifts. If the battle against the Tapu drags on after the moon rises, you won't be fighting in rain anymore. Your water champion will lose her advantage, and you'll need to step up."

Sin began to protest that he, and all the champions, would fight regardless of a climate advantage. Alola's freedom was at stake. What was a bit of rain or sun against their dignity?

"Now show me your fire, Sin! Under water!" Tiger slammed his hammer into the stones surrounding the pools. Steam burst from the burning waters, and a splash added a new stripe to Incinera's left arm. While Sin controlled his fire like Alolan dancers wielded their ribbons, Tiger let his loose like an erupting volcano.

Sin dodged the sailing fireballs as he ran toward Tiger. Unable to use his power at point blank range without hurting his apprentice, Tiger went old school: he punched Sin's gut, sending the younger man flying into a hot spring pool.

Tiger loomed over the pool, ready to push Sin back down if the striped man tried to surface right away. Incinera's silhouette disappeared from view, and Tiger smirked. He's finally listening.

Tiger prowled between the overflowing pools, trying to guess where Sin would emerge. The cracks in his skin glowed with the magma burning through him. He could sense the other fire type's power, and tried to pinpoint the direction it was coming from.

One of the pools spewed water like a geyser. Tiger aimed his fist at it but faltered when water splashed behind him.

Tiger whirled around as Sin propelled himself at his mentor and launched a barrage of punches.

Tiger's heavy arms bore the brunt of the force, but he took a step back and his foot landed in the pool he had aimed for earlier. Sin dipped his own fist into another pool. It glowed orange as Incinera used his fire to pulsate water out of the pool below Tiger.

Tiger roared in agony as hot water sprayed him from the bottom up. Laughter echoed in the hot springs as an ivory-haired man joined them, his black wings fluttering when he landed.

"Velvet," Incinera acknowledged the newcomer with a slight bow. He didn't really like the winged man. Prejudice made him distrust people who looked like they could work for Aether, and with his pale hair and paler skin, Velvet looked like a typical Aether snob. Also, Jun's wings were cooler. "How kind of you to join us."

"I'm one of your mentors, Sinner," Velvet pointed out. "I'm not 'joining' you; I'm here to pulverize a lesson into your tiny brain."

Sin rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, stretching the stripes on his biceps. Velvet glanced at the scars but didn't comment. "You have wings," Sin said in an acerbic tone. "It makes more sense for you to train the other champions who have wings. I can't fly. What can you possibly teach me?"

Velvet raked his nails across Sin's face—the cuts were too shallow to leave permanent marks, but they still stung. "Some manners, first. I want to support your island against having to worship anyone, but you should still have respect. A land without gods shouldn't be a primeval ground for monsters."

Sin began to apologize, but Velvet continued, "You're right that I can't teach you fire. But I'm not only a wind type; I'm a dark type."

Sin tried not to laugh at that. With the rain drenching Velvet's dark coat, trousers, and boots, the black-winged man was the epitome of darkness.

"And I see the same potential in you, Sinner."

"I'm a fire type."

"You could control darkness as well as fire."

Sin opened his hand, staring at the callouses that formed like a tree's rings on his palm. "What can darkness do against fairies? Antimatter means nothing in the face of the Otherworld."

"One of the Tapu is a light type," Tiger reminded Sin, squeezing water out of his headband. "Darkness swallows light. You can completely cripple her and bring victory to the other champions."

"Victory belongs to Alola," Sin told him. "And I'm not a slave to assist Jun or Val. I will be the one who stands victorious against the Tapu."


	3. Into the Mist

The mist that enshrouded Primeval also swallowed sound, so Alola was more silent than the water champion had ever remembered it. Her footsteps made light splashes on the flooded roads, yet the raindrops hung suspended. With a smile, she pranced along the road in an arrhythmic gait, her white dress flowing behind her like she was a benevolent shadow.

Cold foreboding halted Val, and her steps faltered. All was silent once more, and a breeze blew part of the mist away to reveal the most beautiful woman Val had seen. The woman's veil fell back, revealing shining black hair that cascaded to her waist. Her widened eyes glittered like stars.

"Let your hair down, Primeval," she said in a singsong voice. "You look prettier when it isn't forced into a loop."

Val moved the hair tie to her wrist, where it joined leather and seashell bracelets. "You can call me Val. All my friends do, and I consider you a friend," she shook out her black hair, as glossy as the other woman's, "Tapu Fini."

Fini let her veil fall from her shoulders. The two women bore an eerie resemblance to each other: their blacker-than-midnight hair, their starlit eyes, the thin crescents of their mouths, their slenderness, the moon-shaped birthmarks on their throats. The only differences were their dresses, one white and the other sapphire, and the malevolence in Fini's smirk that Val's innocent eyes seemed not to notice. "We are more than friends, Primeval," Fini reminded the younger woman. "We are sisters."

Val took Fini's hands in her own. Fini's hands were smoother, while Val's had blisters and callouses from training with the legends. Guilt prodded her soul as she wondered what they would say if they saw her holding hands with a fairy, the enemy they trained her to fight, but Fini was her kin, which had to count for something. "We are of the same blood," Primeval agreed. "The mist you create is ours to share."

Fini nodded, leaning closer to Primeval. Whispering into the younger woman's ear, she explained, "Rain can't fall in the realm of shadows. What will you find here, Primeval?"

Val took a step back. She knew what Fini wanted. Val turned and led the fairy to a rocky cove. Mud did not ruin either of their gossamer-thin dresses, and kelp and seaweed did not cling to their bare feet.

Val conjured a pulse of water that blasted the rocks away, revealing a smaller woman huddled in on herself. "Bruksa," Val murmured.

The woman rose, revealing patchy skin and thick, cracked lips. Her eyes darkened when she saw Fini. "What do you want?" she hissed. "I won't let you torture me."

"We don't want to hurt you," Fini assured Bruksa. "We want to give you peace, Bruksa."

"You want to kill me! Again!"

Fini's mellifluous voice was a taunting song. "Sun and rain cannot hurt you in oblivion." She nodded at her companion. "Give her peace, Primeval."

Val wrapped mist around her hand and formed it into a long icicle. She thrust it at Bruksa, and the icicle shattered.

"Harder!" It was not Primeval's voice now, but a man's. "You'll have to do better than this, Val, if you want to defeat the Tapu."

"I'm trying, Spear," Val lied. She looked up; Spear stood at the other end of the small beach. The mist was gone, the rain pounded on the mud and drenched Primeval, and the cove where Bruksa had sheltered was nothing more than rock crumble.

Val gasped as the gravity around her shifted, and Spear flew at her like a magnet. His ivory antler sword trapped her, and he pushed her to the sand. "You're not trying hard enough, Val. What's going on with you? You used to be the strongest among the champions. Now they've caught up—even Jun—and you're falling behind."

"I've been distracted." Val couldn't meet Spear's kaleidoscopic gaze, which seemed to search her soul for its lies and treachery. "You're a fairy, too, Spear. Do you really want us to kill the Tapu?"

Spear got up and put away his antler sword. He was handsome, and Val wanted to stand taller and closer to him. The ocean breeze blew at his dark hair as he gazed at the horizon. His skin was fairer than an Alolan's, but instead of Aether and a lack of vitality, it reminded Val of a pearl. "I don't like to get involved in a country's affairs. Kukui hired me and my friends to teach you."

"And that's it?"

"That's it." Spear shook his head. "Maybe I should leave the mentoring to Cerulean. She's better at this—she's better with you."

Val wanted to stomp on the mud and splash Spear's boots, but he already saw her as a child; she didn't need to confirm it for him. "Ceruli is a better teacher than you," she agreed in a false, pleasant voice instead.

Ceruli surfed on the high tide without using a surfboard. In the epoque of rain, water types became more powerful, but there weren't many water types in Alola and Val didn't feel powerful. Cerulean's dark blue coat billowed behind her as she spun. She had no qualms with splashing both Spear and Val with mud as she landed on the shore.

"Ceruli!" Val exclaimed, and hugged the older woman. Cerulean was as pale as Spear and looked even less like an Alolan with her cherry-red hair, but Val found comfort in her favourite mentor's strong embrace and sea-blue eyes.

"Hey, baby," Ceruli kissed Val on the cheek.

Spear frowned as he approached them. "She won't focus, Cerulean."

Ceruli stared at Val with concern in her pool-like eyes. "Aw, baby, are you worried about the solstice?"

"Terrified," Val confessed. Though champions usually fought as a team, Val knew she would find herself alone.

Ceruli kissed her apprentice again. "Come on, baby, let's go get ice cream from Melemele. You need to relax."

"She needs to train!" Spear exclaimed.

Ceruli ignored the other legend as she guided Val away from the beach. The younger water type turned to stick her tongue out at her less favorite mentor, who stomped and threw a tantrum, altering the gravity between himself and a distant palm tree to punch a hole through the wet bark.

"What was that?" Pecki exclaimed as a palm tree shook below him. His colorful wings flapped to shake off raindrops as he hesitated.

"Don't worry about it, Pecki. Spear's probably throwing a tantrum," Velvet joked, soaring ahead. "Fairies are cute that way."

"Fairies are not cute," Ray retorted from behind Pecki.

The champions usually trained alone so they could focus on their unique strengths, but Pecki wished Jun could have joined them. Juniper was probably learning more from the Island Reaper than he would from flying with friends, but Pecki found that a weekly dinner with the other champions wasn't enough. After seven years, their brief interactions made him yearn to spend more time with them. Hala told stories of how he and the other champions had battled alongside each other, a true team, but how could Pecki coordinate with people he didn't train with? Kukui wanted to try a new training method with the legends, but for once, tradition might actually have reason. If Pecki was being honest, the only reason Alola was against tradition was because fairies liked it.

"Fairies," Ray continued, "are vicious, nasty monsters who would enslave and force a free nation into submission to boost their miserable ego."

"It's cute," Velvet reiterated, flying backwards in the rain so he could face Ray and Pecki, "because they'll die."

Pecki swooped into a clumsy descent. Ray streamlined his quetzalcoatl feathers to follow. Velvet hesitated, blinked raindrops off his long lashes, and then followed more cautiously.

"What's going on?" Pecki demanded.

Half a dozen Skulls surrounded the oracle, a small and feathered woman who was the mistress of Alola's four priestesses.

"Orica!" Ray exclaimed, recognizing the crumpled woman in the middle of the violent circle. "Get away from her!" He uncoiled long string and lashed out against the Skulls. As the string moved through the air, icicles formed along it, and the rain briefly ceased.

The ice caught most of the Skulls along their skulls, but Lycan ducked and pressed his palms to the ground.

The three winged men took to the skies to avoid the rocks that burst from the ground. Pecki noticed Orica in the path of one of the rocks, and flew back to scoop her away from Lycan.

This close to the ground, there were more rocks that whizzed by without a pattern. Pecki caught Lycan's icy-blue gaze, which shifted to amber and widened in fear. The rocks crumbled to dust that washed away in the rain, and Pecki imagined that Ray and Velvet had joined him. His mentors could be intimidating, and Pecki lifted his head, proud to be trained by them.

Then he realized his neck was wet. Orica dropped to the ground in a mass of wet, limp feathers as Pecki brought his hand to the back of his head. The skin was split open, and warm fluid gushed out against his palm. A rock hit me. After all that, I...

Pecki slumped on top of Orica.

"It was an accident!" Lycan cried out as the other Skulls regained consciousness. "You know I'm a fairy hunter—I'm one of you, I'm loyal to Alola—I want the Tapu dead—I wish..."

Lycan never finished his sentence. The energy drained from him when Velvet's black wings touched him. With no life left, Lycan collapsed, away from Pecki and Orica.

Velvet hated his power. He could take energy but he couldn't transfer it. He wished he could give it to Pecki. Alola needed their fourth champion. He met Ray's hazel eyes, full of worry.

Most of the Skulls retreated in fear, but one remained. He was a foreigner like the legends, and his platinum-blond hair covered one eye.

Velvet snarled, "Do you want to die, too?"

Gladion replied, "Your power won't work on me. Besides, I'm not here to pick a fight."

Ray stepped forwards, standing beside Velvet against Gladion. "What do you want?"

Gladion lifted his chin. "I can be your fourth champion," he offered, "but on one condition."


	4. The Fourth Champion - Gladion Null

I was eleven years old when I was told I would die. You are legends, so death is unimaginable for you. You can look it in the eye and spit in its face, and you will emerge victorious because your power is unrivaled. I'm the only person you can't kill with your magic, because my ability is to nullify other abilities. In fact, I can't be killed. When Hala told me I'll die on my eighteenth birthday, it sounded like a death sentence. But for the past seven years, it's been like a protection spell.

After joining the Skulls, I've had many near-encounters with death. Hunting fairies is an unpleasant business, especially if you don't actually hunt fairies. I've never killed a fairy with my own hands, but I'm an accomplice: I set up the targets, I lure fairies into ambushes, I take away their magic so they can't fight back as Lycan or Pluma or another Skull finishes the job. Yet I will do whatever is necessary to... to fix things, and if ending the Tapu is what being a champion in this era entails, then I'll do it.

When Hala told me when I'd die, I ran away. That was how I met the Skulls; Guzma offered me a second home to escape to whenever things got too tense at Aether. That's the point of it, that the Skulls are a second home. I'd return to Aether eventually—frankly, it was the morning after, when I learned the Skulls ate like rats. It wasn't my mother who welcomed me home, or Hala—they were fighting in one of the smaller conference halls, number 17—it was Hala's young grandson, Hau.

Hau is a sweet child. He's two years younger than me and... and the other champions. Though he's descended from one of the previous era's champions and an ice type, he's completely normal. He has no magic except his kindness, and he has no fighting skill or any desire to learn to fight. He's a pacifist and he deserves better than what Hala, or I, or Alola could give him.

"Why did you run away?" he asked.

I laughed in his face and gestured at my mother and his grandfather, still duking it out, her sharp words against his grand prophecies. "Do you think I wanted to stay around this madness? I'm dying, Hau. I'll be dead in seven years."

I expected pity from him. I didn't want his pity, but I wanted something I could lash out against. There was no sympathy in his dark green gaze, and he shrugged. "So what? I could be dead in two years."

"Or you could live to be older than your grandfather."

"I don't want to be anything like him." His sudden bitterness disappeared as he continued, "I think it's better to know than not know. Now you can make sure you live the rest of your life the way you want, and do something epic on your last night."

The next seven years were a fragmented chaos. I was my mother's main test subject because I'd be the patient of her grand N-of-1 trial. Aether conducted many experiments as they strove to find a way to conquer death. It was always my mother's ultimate goal, but now she had a deadline. My father stopped visiting, and he didn't answer to any of my letters. No one would answer my questions, so for all I knew, he was either avoiding Aether's insanity or he was dead.

Whenever I got tired of being Aether's object, I became the Skulls' accomplice. I was under their protection so no rats dared bother me. Guzma mentored me to be faster, and I practiced sparring against Lycan. I became stronger and tougher—do you want to test me, legends? I can take both of you on at once. You're not confident enough without your magic. No, you're right: Alola's freedom is more important than a petty bout.

Finally, away from Aether and the Skulls, Hau encouraged me to come up with a list of things to do before I die. I've done almost all of them by now, from snorkeling to bungee jumping. Anything that can be done with a bit of money, I've accomplished it. I would have been able to die with much less regret because of Hau. One of the only things missing was finishing what I started in Aether.

And then that was accomplished, too. Aether created a parasite called Nihil. It's supposed to prevent cell death. If I get shot, it will make my heart mend itself. If I bleed, it will keep my organs oxygenated until my skin repairs itself. The only thing that can kill me is cancer, but by the time it progresses, Aether will have come up with a cure for that, too. Nihil is special because it has its own life, its own... mind. Its autonomy is also what makes it dangerous.

During a trial, Nihil went rogue and destroyed part of the lab. It knocked out several security guards and I think one of the scientists fainted and got a concussion. Worst of all, instead of entering me, it went into Hau.

You'd think it wouldn't be so bad, that if I can't be immortal, then the friend who helped me get through the past seven years would be rewarded. But remember, Aether didn't create a philosopher's stone; my mother's organization designed a cure that works for a single patient—me. To anyone else, Nihil is poison.

Hau has been unconscious for three days now. He doesn't have long left before Nihil's poison completely subdues him. If we can't get the parasite out by the end of the solstice, both of us will die.

While Aether conducts another round of trials, coming up with an experiment as soon as they formulate a new hypothesis, I did what I do best: I ran away. This time, I didn't go to the Skulls. I went to the oracle, the wisest person in Alola besides the village elder, who's garbage, anyway.

Orica delivered a more hopeful prophecy. "You wish to save yourself and your friend," she said to me. "There are three who wish to save themselves and their island."

It took me a second to realize she was talking about the champions. "There are four champions, not three."

"There are three," Orica repeated, "who wish to save themselves and their island."

"Are you saying... one of them is a traitor?"

There are rumours, you know. Primeval is a fairy trained by a fairy to kill a fairy she's descended from. There's bound to be mistrust.

"I am saying," Orica explained, "that you can be the fourth champion. An opportunity awaits in your next hunt, Gladion Null."

When I arrived at theSkulls' favorite alley, Pluma had already left to poison a rich fairy's wine,but Lycan was leading another ambush. I joined him because I thought that'swhat Orica meant, but I didn't realize his target would be the oracle herself.I don't remember much of what happened—you knocked me out, and your friend tookout the only person who didn't get a bump in the head—but I'm here, I canfight, and you need a new champion. I can be your fourth champion, but on onecondition: we conquer Nihil before the Tapu.


	5. Poison Without an Antidote

Hau lived like life was a dream. With Nihil suppressing his consciousness, life was a dream for him. He could fly and sing, he could create flames and snowflakes, he could teleport to anywhere in Alola. All of this freedom came at the cost of his physical mobility: his soul strolled down Alola's filthiest streets while his feet stayed sterile; his hand brushed down an oranguru's bristling fur while his arm hung from the cot; he swayed to the music in the City of Gold while his body remained in Aether's close observation. Nihil's poison circulated through his blood, slowly eating away at what little muscles the 16-year-old boy had.

"Lusamine, your son returned," one of the scientists whispered to the company's ivory president.

Gladion. Hau imagined poking his own body, trying to wake up. He needs Nihil.

Hau peered closer at one of the monitors to look at the date. His jaw dropped and his eyes rolled back. The solstice was tomorrow! Tomorrow, Gladion would be 18 years old, and he would die without the parasite that was slowly killing Hau.

Where is he?

Hau wandered away from his body and the Aether scientists, searching for his friend. Gladion Null wasn't hard to find; Lusamine's slender son's heavy boots echoed on the marble floor. His three companions' lighter footwear were silent, making them seem as ghostly as Hau.

Hau recognized three of Alola's champions. Hala told him stories about the champions trained by legends, trying to incite envy and a poisonous kind of motivation in his normal grandson. Primeval's power was as bountiful as her beauty, and in the climax of the rainy epoque, she was the most powerful Alolan. Juniper was a plant type who could fly, giving him the most versatility; Hau was less interested in Juniper's fighting skill than in the champion's hobby of weaving cute, useless hats. Pecki's wings were more magnificent than any others'. Hau had never met him, but he felt he'd like Pecki, if only because Hala despised him for being the weakest champion. Incinera was Alola's wild card. The fire type had harnessed his power to still be effective even in the torrent, and if the battle carried over past midnight, then the next epoque could bring a weather pattern that would amplify Incinera's power.

Hau counted Gladion's companions as they stormed through Aether's flashy corridors. There's Juniper with his silly blue hat, Primeval with her see-through dress, and Incinera, who likes to show off his ugly muscles. Why wasn't Pecki among them?

As though she could hear his soul's question, Primeval's silver-blue eyes darted toward Hau, who shivered at their coldness. She didn't speak to him, but mist trailed behind her. Fascinated, Hau reached an ethereal hand out to the moistness.

The mist clouded the four older teenagers, and bitterness gnawed at Hau as he wondered if Primeval had deliberately set the mist to elude him from them. What do they have to hide? Primeval, Juniper, and Incinera were champions, Alola's chosen warriors to fight the Tapu and bring glory to themselves. And although Gladion had no real magic of his own, his bizarre ability and sharp fighting skill put him on equal ground with the warriors. Do you want to be like them?

Hau shook his head. He vowed he'd never be like Hala, whose glory and arrogance hardened him and made him cruel to the people he was supposed to love.

"Don't be too hard on us," chirped a friendly voice.

Hau turned to face a boy his own age. The stranger's skin was slightly lighter than Hau's, and he flapped vibrant wings that shone with all the colours of an elusive rainbow. His bright brown gaze was unfamiliar, but Hau recognized him. "Pecki? Did you get separated from the others?"

Pecki looked younger than the other champions. He couldn't have been older than 16, though he should have been 18. Hala only chose 11-year-olds to train during the epoque—too young, and the choice raised ethical questions about pitting children against gods; too old, and training became too difficult. You can't teach an old rockruff new tricks, Hala often said to Hau, especially over the past few years as it became truly, depressingly evident that Hau would never learn to fight.

"I guess you could say that," Pecki admitted.

"Is it harder for you to keep up because you're small?" Hau blurted out.

Pecki laughed. "Val is the smallest, but she's the one the rest of us tried to keep up with. No, Hau, I'm small right now because that's what I want to look like. Do you want me to look 18?"

"You can change how you look?" In that case, Hau wanted muscles and a stern look—no, he didn't want any of that. He liked himself just the way he was, a normal type with no resemblance to Hala.

"Most shadows hold onto their bitterness so they look the way they died, but we all..." Pecki trailed off when Hau began crying. His voice was gentle as he said, "Yes, Hau, I'm a shadow."

"But you're not evil."

"Not all shadows are evil," Pecki told him. "Some don't know how to move on. And some don't want to move on yet. I won't find peace until I see the Tapu dead."

Hau thought of the three champions raiding Aether with Gladion. "Do you really think Alola can win against the Tapu with three against four?"

"There are four," Pecki assured him. "Gladion has joined the champions in return for them helping him remove Nihil from your body."

Excitement made Hau jump, but the mist slowed his movements. "How do I get back?"

Pecki snapped off a section of his wooden jewelry and it elongated into a staff. With a flap of his wings, Pecki twirled the staff to generate a wind that buffeted Hau. The former champion faded along with the strange fairy mist, and Hau found himself alone once more.

I'm not alone. People are fighting for me. Hau teleported back to his private room, where scientists were filing out to let the champions enter. Lusamine's ice-like fingers curled around her son's shoulder. "Know what you're doing. Be certain of every move."

"There are lives on the line. I won't mess up."

Pride warmed Hau's chest as his friend marched into the sterilized room. The four champions took up position around Hau's body, and Hau's soul shivered in anticipation.

Primeval stroked a hand down Hau's body, and Hau wished he could feel pleasure at her touch. "He's losing red blood cells and myofibrils. There are too many white blood cells and his blood glucose level has drastically dropped, even accounting for less blood volume."

Juniper pulled out several different leaves and began grinding them in a mortar. "I can bring up his blood volume and glucose. His muscles will grow back on their own when he's awake, but Aether will have to do something about the white blood cells."

"What can we do?" Gladion asked.

Incinera punched his fists together. "I'm ready for Nihil. I can take it on."

Gladion turned to Primeval. "Can you remove Nihil from Hau's body?"

Primeval's voice was firm. "Nihil is a poison without an antidote. If I use my water power to draw it out, it will infect me. Gladion, you're the only person who can safely handle Nihil."

Gladion's voice was heavy with despair. "If I knew how, I'd have done it already."

Juniper appeared thoughtful as he finished mixing herbs. "What makes Nihil stay in its host?"

Poison, thought Hau, but only Lusamine could answer for him. Hau needed to draw Lusamine's attention to the private room. He wandered outside, where the woman paced the corridor, her high heels clicking on the marble.

Hau narrowed his eyes. How could he get Lusamine's attention? He had no physical impact without his body, but could he influence her mind? Shadows manipulate emotions to share their bitterness, he'd read somewhere. Hau didn't want to be an evil shadow, but if he could make her think about going back to the patient room... You don't trust the champions. You're curious about the results. He could see her mind, and he found the thought already circulating. You love your son.

Lusamine hesitated, and her pacing stopped. She glanced at the room. "I trust him," she whispered.

I know, Hau assured her. So do I. I also know you love him, because so do I.

"He shouldn't be alone," Lusamine decided, and returned to the room.

Hau followed her, and he looked away as Lusamine and Gladion embraced. Why hadn't Hala ever reached out to him like this?

Hau didn't catch the mother and son's exchanged words, but he listened as Lusamine explained, "Nihil comes from another realm, and I tried to manipulate it so its poison would keep you alive, but there is no good that can come from such a chaotic substance. It will either infect you, or your ability will nullify its power. Either way, it can't save you." Lusamine sighed and her arms tightened around her child. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you."

"You did," Gladion told her. "I think I know what to do." He turned to Primeval and nodded. "I can nullify its poison. You'll be safe, I promise."

Primeval wavered, and then replied, "I hope you can keep that promise, because I'm the only one who can fight Tapu Fini."

She planted her hands on Hau's chest and pressed once, hard. A clear, jellyfish-like creature escaped from Hau's mouth.

Gladion snatched it, and Primeval guided the parasite into its rightful host's bloodstream.

Hau blinked awake, back in his own body, in time to see a blurry Incinera complain that he didn't get to do anything.


	6. War Against Gods

Juniper, Incinera, Primeval, and Gladion stood on the zenith of Mount Lanakila as rain pounded the silver-blue stones. They couldn't see the sun, but as the moon rose, four silhouettes appeared in the moonlight.

The Tapu's leader, Koko, had dyed the tips of his mohawk in gold. Lele curtsied to greet the champions. Bulu strummed a basswood ukulele, his wide-brimmed hat protecting his instrument from the rain. Fini reached a hand to Val. "My sister."

Gladion and Sin didn't react, but Jun whirled to face his fellow champion. "You wouldn't betray us for her!"

Before Val could reply, Koko lifted his lightning sword and summoned a thunderous crack of electricity from the dark rainclouds.

Jun screamed as the lightning struck him. Gladion winced at the stench of burning feathers, and Incinera spat threats and curses. Val and Fini had vanished.

Incinera went after Bulu, and Lele followed them away from the others. Gladion unsheathed a bronze shortsword and stood between Jun and Koko. "Are you okay?"

"I can't fly," Jun said in a panicked voice.

Koko's fingers sparked as he conjured another lightning bolt. Gladion sensed the energy flowing through the ancient fairy and halted it. The sparks disappeared, and Koko's eyes narrowed at Gladion. "You are not a traditional champion."

Gladion lunged at Koko, who blocked his attack with his lightning sword. The coated glass dampened the metallic clash. "Alola is abandoning traditions. It's why we wage war against gods."

Koko twirled his lightning sword. Powder flaked from the hardened glass and scalded Gladion's fingers. The pale boy dropped his shortsword and lost track of Koko's energy, which began to flow and build up again. "Before you forsake traditions," Koko warned his opponent, "you should know why they exist."

Koko glowed with electricity, too strong for Gladion to nullify. Gladion gritted his teeth, bracing himself to be fried alive like Jun's wings, when Koko stopped glowing.

An arrowhead protruded from the lightning fairy's chest. Koko's hands shook as he stared at the arrow sticking through him. His eyes rolled back and he dropped from Mount Lanakila's cliff, tumbling down the rocks. His body hit a jutting stone on the way down, snapping the arrow's shaft and breaking his neck.

Juniper stood in front of Gladion, still holding onto his bow. His useless, singed wings fluttered limply like shadows. His hazel-green eyes and stony expression matched a hero's ruthlessness.

Incinera leaped out of the way as Koko's broken body tumbled past him, splinters of a breaking arrow flying away in the rainstorm.

Lele saw her Tapu clanmate falling off the mountain and cried, "Tapu Koko! Elder brother..."

As she sobbed, Sin lifted his fist, letting it ignite in the rain before driving it toward his grieving enemy.

A basswood ukulele slammed into his hand. Sin hollered in pain as splintered wood dug into his skin. Bulu glared at him and swung his rotten instrument again.

Sin stumbled backwards, and Lele pushed him off Mount Lanakila. He grabbed the stone before he could follow Koko. Lele stomped on his fingers, and her dark blue eyes flashed light like burning magnesium. Sin looked away to avoid being blinded, and noticed Bulu growing vines that crept towards him.

He wants to pry me off the mountain cliff!

Sin smirked and let go of the stone. Lele's mouth formed an O in surprise. Sin lifted his hands and shot fire at Bulu.

At least I took out one of the fairies...

What the hell was wrong with him? Incinera refused to be complacent. He was supposed to be victorious! He'd be more than Kukui's pawn. He would lead Alola into a new era of freedom from the Tapu's selfish traditions.

You have potential, Velvet's silky voice sounded in Sin's ears. The striped warrior looked around to see if his mentor was flying nearby and offering support, but he was alone in the sky. No legend would defile Alola's pride by fighting the Tapu for them. I can sense unbound power in you. You can control darkness as well as fire.

Sin plunged the world into pitch black. His nails grew into long, sturdy claws that sank into a fluid-like material. Light returned, and his claws grated against Mount Lanakila. He hauled himself up, foot by foot.

"The sky disappeared for a second!" Lele exclaimed as she tried to fan the flames off Bulu, only succeeding in feeding the fire. She whirled to face Sin as the striped monster stood proud and undead. "What did you do?!"

Sin answered by showing her. He stole the light again, and used the brief opportunity to lunge at the light type fairy. His hand grabbed her snout-nosed face, and he snuffed out her energy, her essence. Matter crumbled beneath his palm. When he released her, her face was distorted and missing skin in patches. Lele's eyes were blank, and a strong wind blew her off the mountain.

"Lele!" Bulu cried out, reaching with a flaming arm that dripped like wax.

Sin began to walk away. Bulu was burning alive and would be dead soon. Then, as if by instinct, he turned to finish the fairy off for good.

Bulu loomed above him with his ukulele, his mint-green eyes flaring with madness.

Gladion dropped onto the plant type fairy, squashing him like a pancake. Jun landed nearby, his shadow-like wings fluttering from the descent. Gladion hopped away, his fireproof clothing protecting him from the fire that wouldn't go out even in the rain. He unsheathed his shortsword as Jun drew an arrow.

Bulu collapsed, the fire finally finishing him off. The arrow flew off course and struck the mountain wall. The impact triggered a rockslide.

The boys stared in horror for a second as Mount Lanakila began to crumble, and then started running down the mountain. With Jun and Gladion at his heels, Sin yelled at the top of his lungs, "I had him! You didn't need to butt in! I saved Alola!"

"Well, we saved you," Gladion retorted.

Jun howled like a midnight lycanroc. "We're heroes who messed up big time!"

Sin frowned as he skidded to a halt at the base of the mountain. "Let's agree right now not to let Val know about this."

Jun's eyes narrowed against the pelting rain as he stared up the mountain. "Where is Primeval?"

At the top of Mount Lanakila, mist concealed Val and Fini as they circled each other, their raven-black hair and pale blue dresses making them appear as twins.

"This is clever, Primeval," Fini acknowledged. "The other champions won't know what hit them. We are invisible and we can summon an army of shadows." Her pale gaze darted to the side. "They're coming."

Three figures approached from the deep mist. Val swallowed when she recognized Pecki at the front, holding his staff like it bore a banner. On either side of him stood Lycan and Orica, who closed her fan with a deft flick of her wrist. A blade popped out from the end, and the oracle hurled it at Fini.

The water fairy caught the war fan with her veil, which tore in half. She chuckled at Val. "Are you sure you can control them, Primeval?"

"I don't need to control them," Val told her. "We fight for the same cause: Alola's freedom!"

Val lashed out with her whip, water splashing with the movement. Fini dematerialized to dodge the attack, and reappeared behind Orica, who ducked as Lycan launched a flurry of large stones.

The first rock hit Fini before she could evade the attack. Blood spurted from the laceration, and Pecki slammed his staff into her face.

"You're a coward, Primeval," Fini hissed, conjuring a whirlpool to lift herself. "You turn your back against your own kin for an island that hates fairies like us—like you. And you don't even have the guts to stand against me by yourself!"

Val followed Fini on her own whirlpool. "Our powers are too similar," she gasped out. Keeping up with Fini at the same time as coordinating with the others was tougher than she'd anticipated. "The only way I can be sure of winning against you is by using shadows' wrath. Thank you," she added, "for teaching me—for trusting me."

Val's whirlpool lifted Orica, Lycan, and Pecki. Fini covered herself with the two halves of her veil, freezing it through as her four opponents attacked at once.

Orica's war fan struck first. It cracked the ice shield, weakening it for Lycan's rocks. Lycan and Pecki lunged together, Lycan's pipe and Pecki's staff bursting through Fini's shield. The water fairy was gone.

Fini snuck behind Val, evading the younger woman's whip. Val let go of her weapon to grab Fini's throat. At the same time, Fini's fingers curled around the roots of Val's hair, ready to yank and snap Val's neck.

"Why did you choose Alola over the Otherworld?" Fini demanded, yelling to be heard over the rushing waters.

"Alola is my home!" Val declared. "The Otherworld is a dangerous, outside realm full of monsters that infect my country like parasites."

"We deserve respect, too."

"You want us to worship you!"

Pecki, Orica, and Lycan surrounded the fairies, ready to leap in and support Primeval. Fini let go of Val's hair, and the whirlpool shrank into a rippling puddle. "There are other realms outside this and the Otherworld," Fini whispered. "Alola has enemies that are more dangerous, far more monstrous than the fairies who only wanted to guard the island's traditions."

"We don't want traditions," Pecki retorted.

"I am one of Alola's guardians," Val added. "And we know about the other realms and its creatures. Lusamine opened a portal to bring Nihil to our realm." With pride, she boasted, "I manipulated Nihil, and Gladion quelled its poison. Foreign monsters are no match for Alolan champions."

Fini's pale eyes filled with tears. "You opened a portal?!"

Val hesitated, her fingers trembling around Fini's neck. Was that really so bad?

Fini shook her head. "Hala chose the champions to battle Tapu in an epoque of rain. You are no match against the ultra beasts."

"She's trying to scare you," Lycan warned, and Pecki snapped, "Finish her already, Val."

Primeval cracked Fini's neck in her hands. The mist faded, along with the shadows, and Val's feet were unsteady on the mountain's stones.

No, it wasn't her feet that were unsteady; it was the mountain itself. Mount Lanakila was crumbling—what had the boys done?

Val leaped off the mountain as the rock slide engulfed the area she'd been standing on less than a second ago. She hung suspended with the raindrops. As their movements slowed, the temperature plummeted. The rain became snow as Val landed among the other champions.


	7. City of Gold

Gladion strolled between the well-dressed people celebrating the champions' victory. The long, thin tails of his diamond-woven suit coat glided behind him as his white boots clicked on the marble. Lusamine grabbed his arm, her rings pressing against his suit's gemstones. "Go join your friends," she urged him. "I'll take care of our guests."

Hau waved at him, and Gladion smiled at how ridiculous his childhood friend looked in a tux. Jun borrowed one of Gladion's suits, woven from topazes and emeralds, while Val looked radiant in a gossamer dress with sapphires and opals one of Lusamine's tailors wove into the hem. Only Sin refused to dress up, crossing his arms and staring defiantly at anyone who looked too long at his sleeveless top and the stripes cutting his arms.

Val raised a glass of white wine at Gladion's arrival. "To our honorary champion!"

Jun looped an arm around Gladion's shoulders, and Sin bumped his knuckles. "You're one of us. You fought like a champion back on Mount Lanakila."

Gladion picked up a glass of white wine and clinked it against Val's. "To us!"

"To us!" Hala repeated at the front of the reception hall. "Thanks to the bravery of our champions, Juniper, Incinera, Primeval, and Gladion, Alola is free from the Tapu!"

The cheering ceased as a tall man with silver-blond hair strode into the hall. His ice-green eyes matched one of the champion's. He raised a glass of dark red wine in salutation, and Gladion gasped, "Father."

"Slasher Null," the guests whispered. "Lusamine's husband." "Wasn't he dead?" "Will he take over Aether now?"

Hau's short fingers clenched into fists. Val and Sin looked at Gladion, gauging his reaction, while Jun picked at one of the topazes on his borrowed suit that was bulkier than the others.

Slasher downed the wine and returned the empty glass to a short server, who bowed his head and retreated into the crowd. The light-haired man stretched his arms out.

Gladion glanced at Lusamine before hugging his father. "I missed you."

"Where the hell were you?" Lusamine demanded. Gladion hastily returned to his friends as his mother marched to the newcomer. Ice coated her hand before she slapped her husband's face, which flashed silver and clanked like metal from the impact. "You disappeared from the face of Earth! The world thought you..."

Slasher held Lusamine before she could fall. "I'm not going anywhere now," he promised.

"I'm going abroad!" Sin declared with a burp.

Jun and Val glared at him, exasperated, and then Val looked thoughtful. "Most people our age will be applying to colleges now."

"I want to stay in Alola," Jun said. "Kukui offered me a position as his research assistant."

Gladion stared at his parents, who were walking away from the hall to argue in privacy. With Slasher in an ivory suit, and Lusamine's long diamond gown trailing behind her, they looked like they were getting married.

"We can provide a lab for you in Aether."

Jun looked at Gladion in surprise. "You're staying, too?"

"My family hasn't been a family for almost a decade. How can I leave now?"

Outside, flurries danced in the wind. Snow landed in a brown puddle on the opposite end of Alola. Ramshackle buildings leaned against each other for warmth. Street rats cut apart a safety net and laughed wickedly as someone dropped from the roof.

They hissed with disappointment when the boy landed unharmed. His boots added cracks to the concrete ground, but with a wave of his fingers, the ground mended itself.

A rat frowned. "Ya gots more than one power, boy?"

The boy tossed his grey-brown hair away from his face and stared at the bearded man for a few seconds. Kohl framed his amber eyes, giving him a more exotic appearance. After an insulting scrutiny, he sniffed dismissively. "I'm here for the City of Gold."

"Ya comes to the right place, boy."

The boy followed the despicable man's hungry gaze towards the harshly illuminated building on the other side of the narrow street. The upper floors were in construction, but exciting music leaked out. He didn't thank the older men as he strode into the Cog.

"This is the first time I've been here," Gladion said, poring over the menu.

"None of us has come here before," Jun assured him, adjusting his brown leather jacket as a half-naked hostess drifted by.

Sin and Val sat close enough that their arms were touching. Val let an attractive host take her coat, and looked at Sin in exasperation when he tripped the poor host. Despite the cold, he still insisted on his sleeveless tops; his dark red turtleneck complemented the Cog's gold-and-scarlet aesthetic.

Gladion smiled at Val as she shook out her dark hair, which was cut above her shoulders. "You look good, Val."

As Sin boasted about all the things he'd learned in his first term of college and Val gushed about a work study opportunity with Ceruli and Gladion ordered an appalling amount of food in a restaurant that emphasized entertainment, Jun's gaze strayed to the other people, wondering what brought them to the notorious City of Gold.

Hostesses sat in older men's laps; dancers swung around a pole as their audience whistled; a naughty customer pinched a host as he walked by. A lonely boy wandered around the perimeter. Patrons whistled at him, one poked at him, and he whispered to a few hosts. He looked a few years younger than Jun and his friends, and Jun called him over to join them.

"Are you waiting for someone?" Jun asked.

"I'm looking for someone," the boy corrected him. He ran a gloved hand through his grey-brown hair. "Aren't you the champions? What the hell are you doing in the Cog?"

Jun frowned. "We're not training anymore and we're not underage."

"I'm eighteen."

Val leaned on the table to get a closer look at their new companion. "What's your name, friend?"

"Kalai."

"That's a beautiful name. Mine is Primeval, but you can call me Val."

Kalai offered to shake her hand, but Sin pulled Val away and glared at the younger man, who smiled innocuously.

Jun shook Kalai's hand since Sin and Val wouldn't and Gladion was still going through the menu. He could feel Kalai's calloused hand through the glove's thin and supple material.

As Kalai walked away and Val called out that she hoped he found who he was looking for, Jun brought his fingers to his temples. The heavy music hurt his head, there were too many people to keep track of, and the tea was too weak to soothe his nerves. The plant at the table's centerpiece was wilted, reflecting Jun's depressive mood. He reached out to help it grow, but nothing happened. His plant type energy failed to flow through him.

"Very funny, Gladion."

Gladion glanced up from his menu. "I know, right? What restaurant makes pasta more expensive than a steak-and-shrimp meal?"

Kalai coiled a vine tendril around an older patron's thick finger. "You're Tar Blacker. The hosts say you've been coming here for decades, before my mother was born. If anyone knows what happened to her, it'll be you."

Tar grunted, and Kalai tried not to wince at the horrid stench of the older man's breath. "What do I get if I tell you?"

Kalai tightened the tendril, and the distal end of Tar's fat finger began to turn purple. "You'll have my company for as long as you talk."


	8. Miracle Worker - Tar Blacker

CONTENT WARNING: If you are a more sensitive reader, feel free to skip this chapter. Cheers!

The City of Gold has been my home for over thirty years. On my first night, I was already drunk and couldn't think right. A few hours before, Aether fired me for getting too close to their darling heiress. We had a connection! She said she liked my tie, and I told her she looked like the moon. I meant it as a compliment, I swear, but she thought I was calling her fat!

Ow! Okay, back to the Cog—the first person who greeted me was a hostess who looked more radiant than Aether's heiress. Though her skin was tanner and her hair was darker, I saw her as an angel come to console me. Her name was Angeli, and unlike the skinny heiress, she could truly be compared to the moon. It didn't seem right, though. Her face was pretty, but she couldn't dance with a bulging stomach. More importantly, what's a pregnant lady doing in a place like the Cog?

I know some people have no choice, you don't have to remind me—I mean, look at me! Do you think I want to be a drunk old man wasting his life with pretty boys and girls two generations separated from me? I need another drink, I need someone to talk dirty to me, or just talk to me. Being old in Alola is lonely.

Angeli fixed that. She was the first person in hours to talk to me like a person. When Aether's heiress reported me, the other scientists treated me like I was something filthy off the floor, mold on expensive bread that wasn't stored properly, a bacterium in a sterile room. But Angeli looked at me like I was the world. I get that she's getting paid—I could already feel my wallet getting lighter as my sapphires drained away with every minute she spent with me—but I didn't care, as long as I could hear her voice and relax in her touch.

"Why are you sad, shining man?" Angeli's low voice soothed my anxiety at being unemployed. "Don't you know that the City of Gold is the most euphoric place in all of Alola?"

"I lost everything, Angi," I sobbed into her chest. "I don't have a job anymore."

Angeli stroked my hair, preparing to be a mother for her own child. "If it's a job you want, I can help you. You're a bit old to work here, but..."

"I don't want to work here!" I roared at her. "You lot are a pitiful people with no future!"

Angeli's slitted pupils constricted further until they were no wider than a hair. "You think you're any better than us, Mr. Blacker? Let me tell you, the worst people in the world aren't the ones at the bottom—worse than us are the ones who delight in us." She clapped a hand over her mouth and began to cry. "Don't report me, Tar, I have nowhere else to go."

I held her as she spasmed. Fluid gushed out of her, and I hollered for someone to help, the baby was coming!

Patrons applauded, some whistled and laughed, while Angeli's colleagues stared with empty eyes. "Help her!" I shouted at them.

"It's not our business," one of the hostesses spat as she refilled her client's drink.

"Help me!" Angeli gasped, clutching my suit.

I took off my suit jacket and instructed her to hold onto the chair for support. Her chin wobbled. When she let out a cry of pain, someone yelled at her to shut up. Though it must have been uncomfortable, the delivery was at least smooth. I caught the baby in my jacket and swaddled it in quartz crystals.

"She's a beautiful girl," I told Angeli, helping her support the child.

"She's a miracle," Angeli whispered, and leaned her head on my shoulder. "Thank you, Tar. You're a miracle worker."

"Is that what you'll name her?"

Angeli wrinkled her nose. "Tara? As much as I want to honor your effort, Tar, I knew a girl in middle school named Tara. She was a bitch."

"Don't name her after me." I'm a lustful, greedy failure. Look at me now—I'm stagnant. I haven't found proper work since Aether dismissed me. Angeli's daughter deserved better. "If you want to honor me, then name your daughter for who she is—a miracle, more precious than all the gemstones in Aether."

"Her name," Angeli decided, "is Mirakl."

And that's how I met your mother.

Without support from the other hosts, and mockery from the patrons, Angeli raised Mirakl alone in a hostile, dirty environment, because what other choice did she have? For the first few years of your mother's life, I did my best to help. I pooled together my excessive wages from the few years I worked in Aether and bought baby supplies, children's books and clothes, anything I thought would help. I think I helped. I like to imagine that, through my misery, I did some good.

From the stress of giving birth and raising a child in the Cog, Angeli's body gave out. Her clients complained about the bags under her eyes, her bloated stomach, a hundred imperfections and scars both visible and invisible.

"Don't insult her," I growled, my mind fuzzy. "Angeli is the kindest, most beautiful woman in all of Alola. Her imperfections mean nothing."

"They mean everything in the City of Gold," Angeli murmured, "but thank you."

"I can erase your scars," I announced, "with the power of science!"

Angeli's chuckle was forced, but her smile was sincere. "Not even Aether can fix me. What can you hope to do, Mr. Blacker?"

"Most creatures scar when they heal," I explained, "but sawsbuck velvet remains undisturbed when their antlers grow back. If I can catch a sawsbuck, I can study their cells and replicate them for you."

"There are no sawsbuck on Alola, love."

"I'll find one," I promised.

I left for Unova, but I could find only bouffalant. The sawsbuck change their pelts to match the season. I think it was snowing like it is now, and the magnificent, miraculous creatures eluded me. That was when I grew a full beard, and since then, I haven't bothered to shave.

When I returned empty-handed a few months later, the Cog had dismissed Angeli and were teaching Mirakl to be a hostess like her mother. I wanted to take her away, but she didn't recognize me. It might have been for the best; where would I have gone? I'm a mess. I stayed in the City of Gold and watched over Mirakl, unable to do anything as she grew to become the hostess her mother was, beautiful and brilliant and the kindest, most compassionate lady in Alola.

Her virtues were her downfall. Her clients took advantage of her. I fought them on her behalf, because I can return no matter how many times they kick me out, but it's over for her if she loses her job here. As long as Alola clings to its ways, there is no future. History repeats itself. Mirakl gave birth to a shadow of a son—you. She wanted a better life for you than she got, so she sent you away with your father. Malu isn't Aether material, but he hates traditions and refuses to do the same thing twice. He'd never return to the Cog and he'd raise you to have a different, better life. Her daughter wasn't as fortunate. Her daughter's father was a fairy who fled as soon as he sensed trouble.

Her clients were jealous of each other. Men fought over who should raise your sister and who could find you—and you deliver yourself to us on a silver platter, adorned with a short scarf that matches your eyes.

Men are petty and cruel. They recorded their intercourse with Mirakl to defame her, picking at her insecurities as a mother whose children have no future and a hostess who couldn't escape her shame. She opened a hole in the earth and buried herself alive. That was her power, and that was the only time I've seen her use it. Her power doesn't explain yours, amber-eyed thief. If Malu didn't tell you anything, then her secrets are buried with her.

Oh, I guess you could interrogate everyone who has ever worked in the Cog. I have a naughty list full of the ladies and gentlemen who were affiliated with the City of Gold at any point in the last thirty-two years. Angeli and Mirakl aren't available, and neither are Sala and Astera. I saw you speaking with Haixing earlier, but he's booked at this time. At the champions' table is your little sister, Mirami.


	9. Mimi

Kalai pushed Tar away and stormed back to the champions' table. Gladion was telling them about his new baby sister while chowing down on the pork and turnip pancakes he'd ordered. He invited their hostess to share his food since the other champions didn't seem keen on eating. Mirami covered more skin than most of the other hostesses; her faded grey hood and violet mask covered her face.

"Hey," Kalai greeted them and reached out to bump knuckles with Jun, who seemed like the friendliest.

Jun recoiled. "I'm not feeling well," he explained when Kalai looked away. "I'm a plant type, as you know, but my power isn't working for some reason."

Guilt pricked at Kalai. Along with earth and wind, Jun's plant energy flowed through Kalai in clumps, ready to be used in sudden bursts. "I'm sure it'll return by tomorrow."

"I hope so. I take it for granted in my research in Aether. I'll be reduced to grunt work if I'm too slow!"

"I won't let that happen," Gladion assured his friend. "Do you want crab wonton soup? It's still hot."

Kalai's stomach growled. Food was hard to come by, and the Cog's tantalizing meals reminded him of how hungry he was. His fingers brushed Gladion's as the pale man handed him a small bowl of soup.

Gladion's grey-green eyes focused on Kalai, who looked away after a second. "I knew it," the older man hissed. "You stole Jun's power. You have more energy than any other person, but it has an unnatural flow."

The soup tasted bitter as Kalai realized Gladion had tricked him. The power thief had never considered trying to steal Gladion's nullification power—earth, wind, and plants would suffice for tonight, and it probably wasn't possible to use his power against someone who could nullify others' powers—but Gladion had reached for Kalai's energy.

Jun grabbed Kalai's arm. "Give it back."

"Let go of me," Kalai snapped, wrenching his arm away.

Jun tackled the smaller man to the ground. Kalai ducked to protect his head and tried to roll away, but Jun held on. "You're more criminal than anyone else in the Cog!"

"Stop fighting," the hostess urged. Mirami kneeled and reached out to the men wrestling on the floor. "Don't hurt each other. Eat and be merry."

"Get away from them, Mimi, I don't want you to get hurt," Gladion said as he pulled Kalai's sister closer to him.

Kalai blew a gust of wind at Jun and took advantage of his opponent's brief distraction. He drove his knee into Jun's jaw and spun into a standing position. His fist slammed down on the table, making the dishes leap and denting the floor. Earth was a good power for tantrums.

"Don't touch her like that, and don't call her Mimi," Kalai growled at Gladion. "Her name is Mirami, and she's my sister."

Kalai couldn't see Mirami's face, but he heard her gasp. "Kalai?"

"Kalai..." an intoxicated man stumbled towards them, and Val made a disgusted face at the pale newcomer. "What a pretty name for a pretty boy."

Kalai stepped aside and let the man fall onto the table. Soup and tea spilled all over the drunk intruder, and Sin winced as the poor man hollered in pain. Patrons and hosts looked over and clicked their tongues in disapproval. Someone in a suit took a picture of the mess, and Jun covered his face.

"Mud, where's Haixing?" Mirami asked, wiping at the wet man with a towel branded with the Cog's symbol, a three-eyed and one-limbed cat. "I thought you were supposed to be with him." The meaning in her undertone was clear: I thought he was supposed to keep you in check.

Mud shrugged. "I left him when I heard Mira's baby son returned. Malu was a handsome man, I recall, so I figured his son ought to be even prettier."

Kalai couldn't picture Malu as good-looking. His father's face was always distorted in anger and disgust at Alola's state of affairs. He was never content, even after the Tapu were gone.

Kalai swatted Mud's fat hand, and Mud frowned. "Mimi, what's wrong with your brother? He's not as nice as Haixing."

"Where's Haixing?" Mirami repeated.

Mud's exotropic gaze wandered around the busy, golden hall and then rested on the stage. A young man swung himself around on a pole. The crowd whistled and cheered as he unwound thin layers of turquoise and violet garments. Kalai had spoken to him earlier. Haixing had directed him to Tar, and Kalai considered borrowing one of the host's powers. Kalai avoided poison, which was a dangerous magic to wield, but water was versatile and could be well-complemented with wind. And then Jun had called him over before he could touch the host.

Haixing's graceful movements around the pole mesmerized Kalai. This was his first time in the City of Gold, and he hadn't trained with legends like the other champions. Living alone with his tense, discontented father, Kalai had never seen someone move so beautifully.

Haixing stripped down to a thin violet strip beneath his nipples and liquid leggings. He stretched his legs along the pole, balancing himself perpendicularly. He leaned back and when he caught Kalai's eye, he winked.

Kalai's gaze dropped with a smile that quickly disappeared when he noticed Mud's hands around his torso. Mud's fingers seeped through Kalai's jacket and pressed against the boy's ribs. Kalai screamed and elbowed Mud's gut. He stomped and the floor threw his attacker away.

Sin turned his head and saw the commotion. He roared and tackled Mud to the broken floor. Val was at his side in an instant. Mud gurgled and began to choke.

"You're shaking," Jun told Kalai. "Let me help you—what do you want us to do?"

Kalai wanted to check if Mud had poisoned him, but he was too shy to lift his shirt in front of the others. He turned to face Gladion and Mirami, who stared back with wide eyes. Gladion held onto a plate of mango cream puffs, and he skewered one and offered it to Kalai. "Eat and be merry?"

Kalai ignored him and demanded Mirami in a shaking voice, "Is this what people do to you here?"

"I'm not like most hostesses," Mirami replied, tapping her mask. "I entertain with mystery. I keep my clients guessing and wanting more. I'm the encryption they can't figure out, the pot of gold they can never have."

"You're not an object, Mirami. You deserve better."

"Everyone in the Cog deserves better."

Kalai wouldn't make the same mistake as Tar. He wasn't going to leave the City of Gold without his sister. "Come with me. I can support you—it won't be easy, but you'll be free."

Mirami glanced at Gladion. "Alola is free from the Tapu but nothing much has changed."

The champions' eyebrows flared with indignity. Jun, Sin, and Val spent seven years training so they could beat the Tapu, Gladion's involvement in the war against the fairies came at a high price, and a citizen couldn't even appreciate their victory one cold year later.

"But how can I say no?" Mirami continued. "We have a lot to catch up on, Kalai."

Kalai's response was drowned out by a crowd that roared and screamed in excitement. Mud shoved Sin and Val aside and ran toward the stage. Val scowled at the despicable man, but Jun wondered, "What's going on?"

Jun and Kalai exchanged a look and then followed Mud to the front of the crowd. The Cog's director raised Haixing's arm, and his bushy mustache twitched as he declared, "To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Alola's freedom, our poisonous performer will give himself for free tonight to one lucky soul!"

"That's disgusting," Gladion muttered. Mirami crossed her arms, childlike especially as the top of her head didn't reach Gladion's shoulders. Val and Sin stayed behind at their table.

"He's mine!" Mud bellowed.

Kalai glared at the despicable man and slapped the stage, jolting the director. "Since just about everyone here wants him, why not let the man himself pick who he wants to go with?"

The director beamed, revealing a golden molar. "Wondrous idea, handsome stranger. What do you think, Haixing?"

"Pick me!" Mud sent black spittle flying. "I booked you tonight!"

Haixing planted a bare foot on Mud's broad nose and dropped himself into Kalai's arms. Kalai grunted; the dancer was heavier than he'd expected. Haixing kissed his new friend on the nose. "I choose you, Kalai. Take me away."

Kalai set Haixing down and blocked Mud's attack in time. Earth trapped Mud's feet, and a fuzzy leaf wove around the older man's fingers. Haixing propped himself up onto Kalai's shoulders and swung his legs to kick Mud, who ducked. Haixing struck Tar instead, and two large teeth flew out. A patron screamed when one of the teeth lodged into her eye.

Kalai unsheathed his khukuri blade. He inserted the curved point beneath the leaf and then slashed upwards, severing Mud's fingers. That's for touching me, creep.

"I don't tolerate violence!" the director bellowed as he strode towards Kalai.

Mirami intercepted him. The director's fist went through her like she was a shadow. He growled and encased his fist in rock. Electricity sparked between the stones as he punched her again.

His fist rebounded, and Mirami swept a foot across to break the rocks around his fist. She used the momentum to spin and deliver another sharp kick, this one catching the director's heavy jaw.

Mud groped for Kalai with his remaining hand. Haixing pushed the younger man aside and snapped his teeth at Mud. The host raised his leg in a perfect split, ready to bring it down into an axe kick. Mud grabbed Haixing's leg and wrenched it into an oblique angle. The wet breaking sound made Kalai nauseous, and he caught Haixing, whose scream turned into a whimper as he fell.

An arrow sailed past Kalai's shoulder. He whirled around in time to see it pierce through another patron's sleeve. Juniper smiled as he lowered his bow. At his side, Gladion unsheathed his shortsword.

The director's bushy mustache twitched as he demanded, "How the hell did all these weapons get past security?"

As though on cue, the two security guards wandered into the chaotic hall, slumped onto each other. They were more drunk than most of the patrons.

"Get out of here," Gladion ordered Kalai. "Jun and I will cover for you."

Jun nodded, and Kalai reached for the archer's free hand. His gloves were designed to be thin and elastic enough for energy flow. Kalai wished he could return Jun's power at that moment, but Gladion's power would even the playing field.

Jun squeezed Kalai's hand and then let go to draw another arrow. Mirami grabbed Kalai's hand, and the siblings fled the pandemonium of the City of Gold.


	10. Darker Powers

Kalai's boots crunched on the packed snow, and Mirami's slippers splashed in a puddle of slush. Mimi winced as cold water soaked through her leggings. The winter wind bit at her skin where her leggings were ripped, and the broken zipper of her burgundy coat jingled uselessly. At one point during their sprint, her hood fell back. Kalai glanced at her as she yanked it back over her greasy hair.

"You can relax, Mirami. We're away from the Cog. You don't need your mask anymore."

"You don't understand," Mimi told him in a panicked voice. Several blocks from the Cog, deeper into the island's dirty downtown area, she and her brother slowed down. "I'm hideous."

Kalai's concerned eyes were pools of amber, full of warmth that Mimi could bask in forever. "I don't believe that."

"I'm scarred."

Kalai placed a gloved hand on her shoulder and guided her to a narrow alley. Mimi looked up at the stores. They were between an abandoned antique shop and a filthy place that sold pleasure items. If Kalai weren't her brother, she'd be terrified.

Mimi slipped her right hand into her other sleeve and pressed down on her forearm. Her skin pulsed in an even rhythm despite running for almost five minutes. Her power had recharged, so she had nothing to fear.

Kalai took off his left glove and showed Mimi his hand, which was covered in red and silver welts. Mirami laced her fingers between his cold ones. His skin was tender, and Mirami worried it would break and bleed. Her voice was harder than sunsteel as she demanded, "Who did this to you?"

Kalai hesitated. "It was an accident."

Liar.

"What's Malu like?"

"You don't need to cover your scars in front of me, Mirami."

Kalai reached for Mimi's mask, and Mimi grabbed his hand before he could pull it off. Her fingers tightened, bursting the fresh welts. Kalai bit his lip but didn't yell at her. Sorry, brother.

"Look what we have here," a woman's low voice purred. She sashayed from the alley's shadows, kelp draped in her short hair. Her weapon's heavy steel sang in the air as it revolved in a circular path, whistling when it reached the zenith and sighing when gravity pulled it back down. "Two lovebirds who are foolish enough to trespass on the territory of Demyse."

"She's my sister," Kalai told Demyse, deadpan.

"So the rumours are true," Mimi blurted. At Kalai's confused expression, she explained, "Demyse is one of Alola's four priestesses, but the unruliest among them. Only their oracle, Orica, could control her. Now that Orica's gone without having trained a successor, people in the Cog said Demyse went rogue." She thought about what she'd said to the champions earlier that night, about nothing much changing after the Tapu's permanent defeat. "I guess things have changed. Traditions are disappearing."

"You're foolish for entering rogue territory," Demyse snarled, giving a tug of the anchor's string to dig it into the wet pavement. "I used to be a huntress—I hunted monsters, not fairies, though I guess most Alolans can't tell the difference."

"My father is a fairy," Mimi informed her.

Demyse continued, "Now I can hunt whatever I like. And I like hunting people more than monsters—though most of the time, it's hard to tell the difference."

"I agree," Kalai said. During Demyse and Mimi's conversation, he had bandaged his hand.

Mimi felt guilty for hurting him. She blocked him with one arm and pushed up the hilt of her dao with her thumb. "Stay back and leave this one to me." She peered at him through her violet mask. He couldn't see her eyes through the tinted lenses, but she willed him to trust her.

Demyse's anchor tore through the pavement as she tugged on the string attached to it and swung the heavy steel at the siblings.

Kalai leaped backwards into a one-handed flip. Mimi ducked and ran toward Demyse, fully unsheathing her dao. Tar said it was supposed to be part of a pair, but the other one was lost while this one had a hole in the steel like foreign cheese. Mimi liked it, though. One sword was hard enough to wield; she couldn't imagine managing two at once. Also, the hole reminded her of herself. It gave the dao an odd appearance, like Mimi. No one in the City of Gold could figure her out.

Demyse planted her anchor into the pavement again and swung herself over Mimi. Kalai twirled his khukuri blades, ready to fight Demyse. Was he planning to steal her plant type power? In an older era, robbing a priestess was a crime punishable by death, but times were changing. Anyway, Demyse was no longer a priestess. Mimi paused, curious to watch. Though Kalai still juggled Jun's plant type power along with two others, more powers than any known person possessed, she wondered how many he could hold at once.

Demyse pulled on her anchor's string. The steel was stuck in the pavement, and the string yanked her back so when she kicked aside one of Kalai's knives, her boot narrowly missed his hand.

Mimi lunged from the shadows and threw herself at Demyse. The rogue priestess's plant power bounced off Mimi. The smaller girl didn't need to check her forearm to know her disguise had been busted. The next magical attack would hurt, so she needed to make sure there were no more magical attacks.

Mimi fought like a vicious little beast. Her teeth tore through the anchor's string, severing Demyse's connection to her grounded weapon. Her nails ripped apart Demyse's skin. The disgraced priestess screamed in rage and agony, grasping at Mimi's neck and ears. Her fingers found purchase and ripped off Mimi's mask.

"Don't look at me!" Mimi snapped, but it was too late for Demyse. The woman's hazel-green eyes blackened, the darkness spreading through the whites of her eyes. Her lips peeled back and cracked, and her teeth fell off. Mimi put a hand to Demyse's nostrils, but no breath tickled her skin.

Mimi picked up her mask and put it on before facing her brother. Kalai looked more curious than scared. "What, exactly, is your power, little sister?"

"My power is called disguise," Mimi told him. Mirakl came up with the name, like her ability to deflect all physical attacks and an opponent's first magical attack was part of a fun costume, and the memory made her smile behind her mask. "It recharges every, I don't know, seven minutes."

Kalai kneeled and put his hand over Demyse's ruined face. "Her energy is completely gone. It happened when she took off your mask."

"My face," Mimi said, "is a curse. Sunsteel burns through fairies, and if Mirakl was a fairy like my father, it would have killed me. Instead, I was left disfigured and—and cursed."

Kalai hugged her. "You're not cursed, Mirami. It's another kind of power, like your disguise and my thievery."

"And Mira's burial." Kalai tensed, and Mimi spoke into his shoulder. "Tar told you, right? Not only did Mirakl bury herself alive, but she had the earth devour her entire body within seconds. The other hosts tried to dig her out but no one could find any remains. Not even the strongest earth type can do what she did. Her power explains ours. We're not plant types or fire types, or any other element. We're different. We have darker powers."

"Our power doesn't come from this world," Kalai told her. He brushed his grey-brown hair away from his face and leaned against the brick wall. Mimi tried to recall if this was the antique store or the less decent one. "If I knew about you, Mirami, I would have come for you sooner. You know that, right?"

Mimi didn't know him. But she loved him all the same. "I don't know, but I believe you."

"Malu said awful stuff about the Cog. He told me it represents Alola's most evil traditions, and while he's wrong about a lot of things, he's right about this. I had no intention of visiting the City of Gold, but yesterday..." Kalai exhaled and ran a hand through his grey-brown hair. Mimi caught a whiff of cinnamon under her mask. "Viole came to visit."

Who's Viole?

"He's a childhood friend. His mother bakes the most delicious apple pie, but she despises Malu. Anyway, Viole visited through a portal into another realm. Four ultra beasts are gathering their strength to conquer Alola now that the Tapu are gone. They want to bring Aether down and revert Alola to how it was before the Tapu's traditions—to a world where the strong subdue the weak and have no regard for laws or morals. No one in Alola can stop them because their powers are unlike any in this realm. You can't beat what you don't understand."

Mirami turned away and opened the door to the antique shop. A few street rats had already set up camp inside, safe and insulated from the snow. "Is that why you came to the City of Gold?" She asked Kalai without looking at him. "Did you want to recruit our mother?"

"No. I didn't agree to Viole's offer. I took it as a warning—and a wake-up call to get answers to where I'm from and who I am."

Mirami believed him. She found two spare blankets under the broken floorboards and brushed off the spinarak. The critters scuttled into a cracked vase with four repeating symbols that probably represented the Tapu, or maybe the first champions. "Did Tar give you the answers you wanted?"

"No. But he led me to you, so it was worth it."

Mirami laid one blanket down so they wouldn't sleep pressed against the grimy, chilly floor. "I don't know if these are the answers you want, but here's what I think: our mother was strong and did her best to survive and do good. You're like her—strong and good—but your effort will transcend hers because you're my brother and you have one of the most powerful and potentially limitless abilities imaginable."

Kalai smiled and kissed the top of Mimi's hood. "It isn't limitless. But it's good enough for me."

"This is enough," Sin shouted at Jun and Gladion back at the Cog. Val counted emeralds to pay for their meal. "We have to go."

Gladion sheathed his shortsword and shoved past clamoring patrons. Jun followed through the path his friend cleared.

"It was good to catch up."

Val laughed, like silver bells. "It's just like old times, right?"

Jun hugged her. "Always."

Sin and Val headed to their inn while Gladion and Jun walked back to Aether. "Did you get your power back?"

Jun focused on the wilted palm fronds above them. Snow fell off and went into Gladion's ivory coat.

"Nope, but I'm not too upset," Jun lied. "I think Kalai needs it more than me."

"You're too nice."

"I don't want to be the bad guy."

When Jun was alone in his room, he punched the pillows and cried into his blanket. Tapu Koko had destroyed his wings, and now a stranger stole his plant magic. His mind felt like fire as anxiety and anger ran in a loop, and he felt like a mess when he woke the next day.

He stared out the window at the harsh whiteness in despair. Juniper wished for his magic to return. He'd already lost too much; he couldn't lose the energy in his blood, too.

Vines crawled down his window. Jun recoiled, and the vines' progress halted. He extended his index finger, and the thinnest tendril curled around his skin, a familiar and comforting touch.


	11. The Ultra Strategy

The priestesses' home was warm and comfortable, set in a burgundy-and-green aesthetic. The eldest sister, Lura, adorned the wall with her favorite weapons, which ranged from butterfly swords to sickles to a fancy ribbon sword only her sisters knew she couldn't actually wield. The aroma of spices and roasted chia permeated the air as the middle sister, Shiina, brought a tray of bread and tea to the guests. The youngest sister, Reena, sat cross-legged on the middle of the pale burgundy couch. Her turtleneck collar was pulled up to cover the bottom half of her face, but her eyebrows twitched in annoyance at the six guests gathered around the dining table.

"Why did you bring food and drink to the intruders?" Reena demanded her older sister.

"Reena!" Shiina scolded in a high-pitched voice. "They are our guests."

"They're our informants, Shiina," Lura corrected her younger sister, "and we are their advisers."

"You're as practical as ever, Lura," Gladion remarked.

"Don't pretend to know me, Aether heir."

"Let's just get started," Jun said, tired though in a better mood now that his plant magic had returned. He kept a friendly and safe distance from the power thief, who sat diagonally from him. Sin, Val, and the priestesses also avoided sitting near him, though Mimi and Gladion were unfazed.

"Right." Lura unrolled a thick parchment grid map and removed pins from her sleeves to attach the map's corners. "Let's talk strategy. What do you know about the ultra beasts, Kalai?"

"Viole introduced me to all four of them." As he spoke, Shiina molded unused dough into three-inch-tall figurines. "First, there's Viole himself. We grew up together, and he's not a strong fighter. In close combat, he'll be easy to take down. What makes him tricky is his power, which we'll call adhesion: instead of sweat, he secretes a fluid with a similar consistency to glue. You'll have a hard time beating him if he sticks to you like a burr. His hair is curly and his eyes are pale blue," he added to Shiina, who held a brown-skinned figurine to represent Viole.

Lura and Reena glared at the sister between them. Shiina's luminescent eyes blinked, and she rammed the figurine's thick hair against her turban to adjust it.

"Then there's Kartana," Kalai continued, blinking kohl from his lashes. Shiina began molding another figurine while Mimi picked up the miniature Viole. "She's the smallest out of all the ultra beasts and has the weakest elemental magic, but she compensates with her skill as a swordswoman and master contortionist."

Kalai snatched Shiina's new figurine and snapped its arms. Shiina's turban drooped to one side when she furrowed her hairless brow. "Hey!"

"She's a lot more pliable than you made her, Shiina. Also, she has a star-shaped scar on the bridge of her nose."

Val frowned. "How is that relevant?"

Lura spoke up as Shiina used her fingernail to carve the figurine's scar. "It'll be her defining feature."

"Her contortion is her defining feature."

Sin flexed his striped biceps. "Markings build character! If I didn't have my stripes, I wouldn't be Incinera, the fire-and-dark-type champion who took down two of the Tapu! Val, it's like... it's like if Shiina didn't have her spots, or Jun didn't have his shadow wings, or Mimi took off her mask and Gladion had normal hair."

Gladion touched his jagged platinum-blond hair. "My hair is as normal as yours."

"The third ultra beast," Kalai continued, and Sin pouted at being ignored, "is Tzwol. Make him bigger, Shiina." The priestess added another inch to her newest figurine's height. "And make him ugly. His face is lumpy, his eyes are squished in like fruit pits, and his fingers are swollen and crooked."

Reena seethed with impatience. "We have a lot to get through today, Kalai. Just tell us Tzwol's abilities and limitations."

Kalai glared at the youngest priestess. "He can drain an opponent's energy and use it against them. As far as I'm aware, he has no weaknesses."

Reena dipped her finger in red dye and marked Tzwol's disfigured figurine.

"The last ultra beast is Cephalus. He's a fire type."

"Is that all?" Sin scoffed. "I can take him on easily. I'm a fire and dark type, after all."

"It makes more sense for me to battle Cephalus," Val interrupted. "Water extinguishes fire. I got this." She slid a seashell charm to the eastern shore on the map. "Snow is harder to control than rain, so if I want the advantage, I'll lure Cephalus to the ocean. That's plus five points for water magic right there."

Sin scratched his head. "Since when did we use a point system?"

"It makes sense," Gladion said, and Lura nodded. "Don't bother bringing your whip, Primeval. Focus entirely on controlling the waters."

Jun plucked one of his feathers and laid it on Viole's figurine. "I roll a plus three for fighting on my home turf. I can make the palm leaves surround Viole, whose adhesive ability will make them stick to him and impair his movements. That gives me plus two for precision with my bow and arrows."

"I have a wall dedicated to arrows," Lura told him. "I'll supply you with whatever you need."

"That leaves Kartana and Tzwol," Reena murmured behind her high collar.

"I'll take Tzwol," Sin and Gladion said at the same time.

"Come on!" Sin exclaimed. "Kalai said he's the strongest ultra beast. That means the strongest champion should battle him."

Val elbowed him. "Who says you're the strongest champion?"

"Who cares about strength?" Gladion interrupted. "I can nullify his ability."

Sin shushed Gladion and replied to Val, "You should take a look at our stats, Val. Here, let me write them out for you."

"Following your logic," Kalai said to Gladion, "I should go against Tzwol. You can erase his power, but I can steal it and use it against him."

"Do you know that for sure?" Gladion demanded, and Reena yelped when Sin leaned across her for a quill and piece of paper. "You couldn't steal my power, or your sister's. You can't hold onto them for long, anyway. Jun has his plant magic back, and you're dead if Tzwol gets his power back in the middle of a battle."

"He won't," Kalai assured him. "I decide when that happens."

"Then why didn't you return my plant magic sooner?" Jun asked, his voice plaintive. "You didn't need plants to help you escape the Cog. Earth and wind would have sufficed."

Kalai's lashes brushed his cheekbones. "I lose borrowed powers when I fall asleep." He looked up to meet Jun's gaze. "Viole knows, and he must have told the other ultra beasts, so you should know, too."

Jun blinked in confusion. "Are you really going to fall asleep in the middle of a battle?"

"No!" Val screamed, and Sin snatched the paper away from her before she could rip it to shreds. "Those stats are bull!"

"Incinera—five out of five for strength, speed, health, intelligence, and magic," Sin read aloud. "The rest of you have mostly threes and fours. Primeval has a lesser intelligence score because she got a C in chemistry. Juniper has a one for magic because he doesn't have his wings anymore, and he misplaced the other half of his power for a day. Gladion has a zero for health since he's technically dead—like, the only thing keeping him alive is a parasite that used to be an ultra beast. I don't know much about Kalai and Mimi, but we saw the two of you fight in the Cog, so I gave Kalai a two for strength and speed, and Mimi gets a one for magic."

Val, Jun, Gladion, Kalai, and Mirami loomed over Sin, who chuckled and ripped the stats chart in half. "You know, stats aren't important. Rolling for luck can really turn the tables!"

"Rolling for observation would be even better," growled a young man.

"Who are you?" Lura demanded, grabbing a saber from her weapons wall.

The man tossed back his aquamarine-and-violet-gradient cloak and leaned on a cane. "Have I truly been forgotten so fast?"

"Haixing," Kalai gasped.

Haixing pointed his cane at him. "You left me! I thought you'd take me away from the City of Gold, but you used me to run away yourself."

He staggered towards Kalai, who ducked to avoid getting hit with the former host's cane. Kalai pushed him away. "I thought the champions would take care of you. They're supposed to be heroes."

Jun winced. Haixing snarled, "We'll talk later. You owe me a free night, pretty thief. But that's unimportant." He used his cane to prop himself up onto the strategy table. "In the 'ultra strategy' you came up with the priestesses, you underestimated Kartana."

He tapped his cane twice on the table, and a shadow slipped from underneath. She moved too fast for anyone to catch. Lura swung her saber at the fish-like creature and missed. Sin stomped on Jun's foot, Mimi tackled Haixing off the table, Gladion couldn't keep track of the ultra beasts' spy, and the paper-thin creature slipped between Kalai's fingers without touching them.


	12. Age of Anarchy

The priestesses' home had two spare rooms now that Orica and Demyse had moved on. The champions shared Orica's master bedroom while Mirami, Kalai, and Haixing squeezed into Demyse's modest chamber. Mimi claimed the bed before the boys could. She regretted it when she inhaled Demyse's scent, seaweed and deep oceans, from the pillow.

"Are you offering me the cushions because I'm crippled?" Haixing demanded, prodding Demyse's fir-green cushion with his cane. "Do you know why my leg is broken and the Cog fired me—oh, right, it's because you used me to escape." Mimi peeked from under the covers as Haixing complained in an acerbic tone. She wondered if Gladion and the others could hear from the master room.

"Do you want an apology or do you just want to complain?"

Haixing growled. "I'd rather complain than hear a half-assed excuse."

"I wasn't going to make excuses."

"That's because nothing in all the realms in existence can excuse my pain and sorrow. My knee is creaking like an old man's but I'm only turning twenty in eight months. I should have had at least eight more months before I felt old!"

"Twenty isn't that old."

"My bones are brittle! I can't walk properly! I used to be the Cog's most beautiful dancer—even you were admiring me."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Mimi stifled a groan as she realized she'd have to put up with this all night. Part of her missed the City of Gold, where at least no one wanted to speak, since most interactions with hosts were purely physical. I'm with my brother, champions, and priestesses, she reminded herself. And Haixing, but nothing can be perfect.

Nothing in Alola was perfect. Kukui hired legends to train their generation's champions, but one of them got killed, anyway. The champions defeated the Tapu once and for all, and the fairy protectors' absence left Alola vulnerable to the ultra beasts. If—no, when—the champions defeated the ultra beasts in the morning, what would be next for Alola?

There was no point in speculating about the future, especially without fully understanding the past. By forsaking their traditions, Alola forgot why they'd ever worshiped the Tapu. Koko, Lele, Bulu, and Fini demanded offerings and praise in return for defending Alola's dignity from the ultra beasts, who sought a primordial world where the strong reigned supreme. Somehow, the story got twisted throughout the ages so the people believed the Tapu were robbing them of their dignity rather than trying to preserve it. If Mimi had learned anything in the Cog, where patrons came for impermanent pleasure, then it was that worrying about the distant future was pointless. She focused instead on what tomorrow would bring. She envisioned the battles—Val's water overpowering Cephalus's fire, Jun's plants trapping Viole, Gladion and Sin conquering Tzwol, Mimi and Kalai handling Kartana. Her vivid imagination played with her senses so it seemed like she could hear shouting and smell fire—

"We're under attack!" Lura hollered, slamming their door open.

Behind her, fire consumed the priestesses' vibrant tapestries. The rich, burgundy walls peeled in the heat, and Lura's precious display of weapons melted. Shiina lifted her skirts but still tripped over the burning table, and Reena blinked furiously in the smoke as she grasped for her sister.

"I'll take care of them," Mimi told Lura before the priestess could go after her younger sisters. "Don't leave Kalai and Haixing." Mimi rummaged in her pocket until her fingers brushed against scaly fruit, while Lura stabbed her pins through Haixing's sleeves and wove grass around them like a pulley system. As Lura and Kalai supported Haixing between them, Mimi popped the rawst berry into her mouth and ran into the flames.

The burning wood seared through Mimi's slippers when she landed beside Shiina. She grunted as she lifted the priestess and balanced her in one arm, reaching for Reena with her free hand.

Wooden supports collapsed around the young women, and fire surrounded them. Mimi glanced around wildly, and then water soaked through her sweater. She spluttered and dropped Shiina to adjust her mask, which trapped the water. A tidal wave carried her and the younger priestesses over the flickering flames of the debris. Her first thought was that Haixing had returned for her, but the former host's water magic was not this strong. Then Val picked Shiina up and held Mimi's hand as they surfed through the priestesses' home, dodging sparks and debris.

"My sister!" Reena cried and hopped off the tidal wave. "Lura!"

Mimi tugged on Val's velvet sleeve. "We have to go back for Reena."

The two of them glanced back. Haixing's group moved slowly, and Reena and a muscular man with pecs for days converged toward them. That must be Tzwol, Mimi realized. He was nowhere near as ugly as Kalai had described; actually, Mimi thought Tzwol was good-looking—more than good-looking, he was more handsome than any host; he was the epitome of masculinity.

Kalai released Haixing, and Lura slumped under the host's weight. Mimi's brother unsheathed his khukuri blades and pointed the curved tips at Tzwol's fists as though preparing to insert them under the ultra beast's fingerless gloves.

Haixing created a translucent purple screen just as Reena tackled him and Lura away from Tzwol. The manly ultra beast's fist rebounded from Haixing's baneful bunker with a hiss, and Kalai's knife missed.

Val sighed and dropped Shiina into Mimi's arms. "Run at least a full yard from the house and wait for us, okay, Mimi? Don't return to a burning building."

An arrow sailed past Mimi and Shiina, beating Val to Tzwol. Gladion's heavy footsteps and Sin's war cry approached as all four champions charged toward the muscular ultra beast.

Mimi bit the inside of her cheek in frustration as she was forced to retreat. She followed Val's order and ran a safe distance from the priestesses' home. She set Shiina down on soft, frost-covered grass and turned back to help the others.

Shiina grabbed Mimi's ankle. The smaller girl could feel the priestess's warmth through her leggings. "Primeval warned you not to return to a burning building."

"She's still inside," Mimi retorted. "Also, Haixing will give me an earache if I leave him behind, too."

She sprinted back to the burning house, dodging debris and flames. After the fresh, cold air outside, the smoke threatened to suffocate her. Her eyes flitted around the first floor. Val and Lura chased Kartana around the kitchen. Gladion and Reena cornered Cephalus at the stairs. One of Kalai's khukuri knives clattered to her feet, and she picked it up. Tzwol loomed over Kalai and Haixing; behind, Jun sprinted toward them, his shadow wings fluttering as he tried to move faster.

His quiver had run out of arrows, and Lura's supply was destroyed in the fire. Unlike Sin, Jun hadn't trained to use his power in an elemental disadvantage. Fire burned his plants as soon as he summoned them.

Mimi raced from the other side of the house, but neither of them would make it in time. Kalai kicked Haixing toward Gladion. Haixing shouted a protest at "the indignity of getting the boot" as Kalai dodged Tzwol's punch and dug his fingers into the ultra beast's arm.

Mimi exhaled in relief. Her brother would recharge using Tzwol's energy, and the muscular ultra beast would be easier for her and Jun to defeat.

Tzwol roared in fury and threw Kalai into Lura's weapon wall. Her brother didn't get up. Jun nodded at Mimi and changed course to help Kalai while she threw herself against Tzwol.

The ultra beast's energy-filled fist bounced off Mimi's head without leaving a mark, while her dao slashed his arm open and her foot jammed into his eye.

"Oh," Tzwol exclaimed as he rubbed his injured eye.

Mimi clapped a hand over her forearm. Only magic could bust through her disguise. Apparently, Kalai could fall asleep in the middle of a battle, after all. When Jun was done healing him, she'd hold this over her brother for weeks.

"Stop fighting!" A boy with ombre dreadlocks threw himself between Tzwol and Mirami. "Tzwol, have you forgotten? Kalai and Mirami are like us. They have ultra powers." He looked at Mirami with kind, pale blue eyes that softened her resolve to fight.

"Get back here, Viole!" Sin bellowed, barreling through crumbling furniture that clung to him. "You can't just glue me to the leaden vase and then run away!"

The aforementioned vase swung at his shoulders, and Mimi winced as she thought about how heavy it must be.

Viole grabbed Mimi and pulled her away as Tzwol thrust his fist into Sin's sternum. The fire champion's eyes widened and he struggled to breathe. As soon as Viole's grip loosened, Mimi launched herself onto Tzwol and drove her nails into the eye she'd kicked earlier.

Tzwol howled in rage and spasmed, trying to throw her off. Viole's voice made her lose focus. "You're not helping him, so move out of the way. What's a healer without plants—or a first-aid kit, for that matter."

Sin whimpered near Mimi as Tzwol drained more of his energy. She unsheathed her dao but hesitated. Viole carried Kalai while Jun struggled to break free from the adhesive substance that glued him to the wall. The ultra beast's ice-blue eyes glowed, and a portal appeared in the middle of the room.

Mimi made her decision. I can save them both, if I move fast enough. She swung her dao at Tzwol, who caught it. His hand trembled, blood dripping, and then his fingers snapped her sword in half. Mimi didn't hesitate. She thrust the broken dao into her opponent's arm and then ran for her brother.

A flicker of a shadow, and a glimpse of a star-shaped scar, and then Mimi tripped and fell on her face. Her shoulder stung where Kartana had cut her. Tzwol followed Kartana, Viole, and Kalai through the portal. "The age of anarchy has come, and we will reign supreme!"

Cephalus faced the burning house and extended his fist. Energy sizzled and fire gathered around his fingers.

"Nullify it!" Reena screeched.

"I did!" Gladion shouted back, but he must have been wrong—or Kalai was mistaken, and Cephalus was not an ordinary fire type.

Mimi pressed a hand to her throbbing shoulder. Gladion and Reena stood on either side of her, and Jun and Sin lay at their feet. Haixing limped over to them and raised a baneful bunker as Cephalus shot an overwhelming fire attack from a glowing red ring on his finger.


	13. An Abyss - Viole Nagaspawn

I turn around in time to see one of them raise a translucent purple screen against Cephalus's inferno overblast. The immense force shoots embers through the barrier, but their temporary shield protects them from most of the attack.

Kalai's head shifts on my shoulder as he stirs. For a second, it's like we're children again, as I watch his amber eyes blink into focus.

"Did you get it back?" he asked.

I stared at him, uncomprehending.

"Your power," he clarified. "I lose other people's powers after I wake up, so I think they return when I lose consciousness."

"Oh." Embarrassment made my hands slick. "I didn't test it out while you were sleeping."

Kalai poked my knee with his toes. "Come on, Viole! Experiments only work if you do them properly."

"Sorry." I brushed the back of my neck, and my hand got stuck. "Oh! I'm sticky again!"

Kalai hugged me. "It worked! Tonight, let's find out if it happens as soon as I fall asleep or only when I wake up."

"Why wait?" Our hands were almost the same size; my palm was broader, but his fingers were longer. "Take my adhesion and let's try again now."

"I just woke up from a nap, Vi. You can't expect me to go right back to sleep!"

"Mom's right," I teased. "Men are lazy creatures."

"How is not wanting to sleep all day lazy?"

"And argumentative," I fumbled as I repeated Mom's words, "and stubborn, and mean."

Kalai pushes me, and we both fall. My elbows scrape the ultra realm's violet stone, the impact ripping my sleeves. I get up before my elbows get stuck to the ground. Adhesion puts me in awkward situations sometimes, but it has never been life-threatening.

"I almost split myself in half today!" Kalai told my mom and me as we sat on mats around our low, square-shaped dining table. He gestured with the butter knife, and Mom took it from him before he could take out my eye. She spread hummus on our crackers as he explained, "I borrowed a lady's teleportation ability and warped myself to a school for people like us—people with powers that don't fit into an elemental type like water or fire."

"Ultra powers," I spoke with my mouth full, and Mom clamped her hand on my shoulder with her usual reprimand, "Manners, Viole. Don't be a rude man like the filthy downtown rats."

"There was this boy with Aether-yellow hair," Kalai continued. "He was too big to be one of those skinny scientists' kids, though. He smiled at everyone and he taught me his secret handshake."

I giggled as I kept up with the high fives and finger taps. Listening to Kalai's kleptomaniac exploits was fun because he came up with new ways to make contact with people—tag, touch-football, hugs, you-have-something-on-your-face.

Mom cleared her throat after swallowing. "Men are fools."

"And then I sank through the floor! I couldn't feel my legs, and then I couldn't breathe, and when my face went under, I was blind and deaf. I couldn't even scream for help."

A shiver ran through me. Some powers are inherently dangerous, but none more so than a power that can take those dangerous abilities when you have no idea how to use them.

That wasn't the only near-death incident for my best friend.

"Don't fight us, Kalai," Kartana warns as Tzwol growls and rubs at the eye Mirami attacked. "You're outnumbered four-to-one. And even if you steal most of our powers and Viole doesn't want to hurt you, you have nothing against our burst's firium ring."

Cephalus waves his fingers, showing off the gleaming scarlet ring on his middle finger. "It's made from magma from Mount Lanakila—back when it was a volcano during one of the hotter epoques, and, obviously, before your foolish champions turned it to rock crumble."

Kalai hisses. I hold my breath, expecting him to do something rash. His grip tightens around the hilts of his curved knives as he turns to me. "Is this what Naga wants for you, Vi? She taught you to be kind."

"She taught me men are cruel," I correct him. "She's wrong—returning to a primordial state is neither kind nor cruel, it just is."

"Do you think she's wrong?" Kalai throws his first knife at me, but I know it won't hit me. I don't blink or turn as it swerves in a wide arc. Tzwol's howl of rage tells me where it went. "Did you forget what Malu did to me?"

I'll never forget.

I arranged our low table with a poison-purple tablecloth and our newer ceramic dining set. Only one of the teacups had a chip. I basked in the aroma of Mom's turkey, fresh from the oven. That day was the turn of the epoque. The sun would hide for at least seven years, and Hala would choose this era's champions. Kalai and I were both a year too young, but Hala wouldn't have chosen us, anyway. I couldn't imagine using adhesion in battle, and Kalai's power is too unpredictable. To be honest, it's unreliable. His dad must have known that, because he only trained his son in physical combat. Mom disapproved of vicious fighting, calling it a man's filthy habit, but she knew Kalai isn't like that. She provided Kalai with a safe space, a second home of sorts. I think, for him, it's more home than Malu's house.

Someone pounded at the door and I tensed. It couldn't be Kalai because my best friend never knocks. Mom's pale blue eyes flashed violet as she concentrated poison onto her fingers. "Stay here," she ordered.

I picked up a spatula, which stuck to my hands at once. Mom screamed, and I ran to her side. Then I screamed.

Kalai bled onto our mud floor. His eyes were so swollen I don't know how he could see. Red bruises and scratches marred his neck as if someone desperate had tried to strangle him. His hands got the worst of the assault: raised welts and lacerations ruined the skin, and he flinched when I touched them.

When I was six, I tried to help Mom pull the beef casserole from the wood oven. I burned my hands and couldn't use my adhesion for days. And for at least two weeks after that, the substance that oozed from my hands was inconsistent, sometimes not sticky at all. Anger like fire coursed through me. Someone burned Kalai's hands in an effort to destroy his power.

Kalai caught my eye and whispered, "Malu."

"Malu," Cephalus snarls. "He's my father, too." At Kalai's look of disbelief, he adds, "I was raised by my mother. Rowa was a fire type whose parents immigrated from Kanto to escape being drafted into the war. She told me about how awful Malu treated her, and how she thought he cheated on her. I didn't believe her for the second part because I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to have children with a despicable person like the man Rowa described." Ceph stares at Kalai; they don't look like they're related, except for their identical judgmental expressions.

"Welcome to the City of Gold," Kalai mutters, looking away first.

Tzwol finally speaks up; a cloth covers both of his damaged eyes. "With our combined strength, you can get revenge. You can be an island chief like Solga—no, we'll have more power than a chief who wanted to bind himself to his own laws. You are like a brother to us, Kalai."

Kalai glances at me and I wince and look down. Tzwol doesn't speak for all of us, though Kartana and Cephalus stare at the amber-eyed boy in expectation. When their bodies turn toward me, I look up. Kalai puts a hand under my chin. His gloves are so thin, I can feel the warmth of his uneven skin.

"Is this what you want, Vi?"

When Kalai arrived at my mother's doorstep, wounded after stealing Malu's destructive power, Mom started boiling soup while I guided him to my mattress.

"I don't want to sleep," Kalai mumbled. "Sleeping means letting him win. I want to make him suffer for a while."

"You need to rest," I urged him. "He can suffer for eternity, but I want—I want you to take care of yourself first." He didn't answer, and I asked, "What's his power, anyway?"

Kalai's grin was pure evil. I didn't see anything, but a magnetic force pulled me closer to him. Two cockroaches flew at his thumbs and then vanished from existence. "Voracity," he explained as the mini black hole subsided. "It creates a black hole that seems to destroy anything. Malu made it sound that way, but nothing can disappear for real. The matter goes to another realm."

"Like the Otherworld?"

Naga called me over from the kitchen. "Viole, stop being a lazy man and help your mother carry this to Kalai."

"Don't go to sleep yet," I said. "Mom will complain about men being ungrateful."

"Vi." Kalai's smile would haunt me for over an epoque. "We're ten years old."

In the kitchen, Mom's fingers were sharper than knives as she tore small pieces of turkey. Fluid oozed from the ends of her fingers and dripped into the soup along with the bits of turkey. Mom's power is known as stinger, and it turns her fingers into needles that can transmit all sorts of toxins, from lethal to soothing. I think her toes can turn to needles, too, but Mom likes her fuzzy purple slippers more than her ultra power.

"Our powers come from the ultra realm, right?" Mom looked at me, surprised at my query. "Can we go there?"

"The ultra realm isn't a zoo for children," Mom reprimanded. "It's an abyss of wonder and terror, unbound potential that could be used for anything—anything at all. It's worse than evil." She gave me the bowl of soup-and-medicine and said, "Bring this to your friend, and then we'll talk."

Kalai had already left. Blood stained my cot and the edges of the window, a square-shaped hole in the wood.

I brought the soup back to the kitchen. Mom didn't ask any questions, though the ends of her mouth stretched in disappointment. "They say this is the last era that the Tapu will return. Kukui wants to train his champions to kill. Without the island's protectors and their precious laws, Alola will belong to those who are strong enough to subject it to its will. Those with ultra powers will reign supreme, not as gods but as survivors."

Malu will have hell to pay.

"Leave us for now," I tell the other ultra beasts. There used to be more of us—the stinger, the lighting, the glutton. The symbiont has been compromised, and the others lost to age or their own powers. Just because you can eat a dozen explosives like they're donuts doesn't mean you should.

Tzwol and Cephalus obey. Before following them, Kartana warns me, "Remember what you're fighting for."

When they're gone, I pull Kalai in, slowly at first. Our bodies melt together without needing adhesion. "This," I whisper, "is what I'm fighting for. This," he shivers when my breath tickles his ear, "is what I want."


	14. Jewel of Alola

"What did I say about not returning to a burning building? You could have gotten hurt! And what if we needed to rescue you, too? You should have stayed safe with Shiina."

Mimi had always wanted an older sister, and with her grace and worrying, Primeval was like the perfect big sister for her. She hugged the older girl. "I love you, too, Val."

"What type of heroes are we?" Jun muttered, picking out the sticky substance from his clothes. "Protect Alola from the Tapu—yeah right, we eliminated Alola's best defense against the ultra beasts. We couldn't even protect one Alolan from getting kidnapped, never mind an entire island pervaded by instability and plagued with miserable cold. We haven't seen the sun in over eight years."

He sniffled like a sad child. Sin and Val looked annoyed, Sin's stripes stretching as he flexed his muscles. Gladion walked a little away, with a sideways glance at the priestesses who were already making plans to renovate their home. Haixing was with them as their secretary so Reena could succeed Demyse as a huntress. "We can still save Kalai and protect Alola." Gladion turned back to them, and Mimi marveled at how someone could look Aether and Alolan and ultra all at once. "We don't need to be heroes, Juniper. We just need to do what's right, and do it to the best of our abilities."

Jun smiled. "That's what I believe a hero is."

"Then you're already the perfect hero." Gladion grinned as he unzipped a pocket at his sleeve and pulled out a sleek smartphone. "And I know the perfect person to help us."

"The Skulls?!" Sin exclaimed as the notorious fairy hunters surrounded the five friends.

Mimi reached for her dao out of instinct, but Gladion put a hand over hers to stop her. It wouldn't have mattered, anyway; her dao was broken, one end lost in the fire and the other stuck with Tzwol. "It's been over a year since I spoke with them, but these people are like my brothers and sisters. Life as a cursed heir was lonely and tense, but Guzma and Pluma gave me a second home." He pointed at a gangly teenager around Mimi's age. "Where's your boss? If you delivered my message, Guzma should be here by now."

"Big Brother Guzma is fast when he chooses to be," the Skull retorted, "and right now, he's on a date with Pluma."

"This is an emergency! Tell him it's Gladion."

"He knows," another Skull said, her cold voice sending chills down Mimi's spine. "He also knows you abandoned us after defeating the Tapu."

"What's the point of hunting fairies now that the Tapu are gone?"

Mimi's heart ached. "You were a fairy hunter?"

"I was a Skull."

"He killed them like the rest of us!" the first Skull declared. "It's part of initiation."

Gladion's pale-green eyes seemed to plead with Mimi. "I'll explain later, I promise."

"No." Mimi wanted to rip off her mask and haunt every person here. "My father is a fairy. For all I know, you and your gang of thugs could have caught him. I always dreamed of reuniting with my brother and father. I accomplished half of that dream, and I hoped Kalai and I would go on a journey together when the mess with the ultra beasts is over, but now he's gone and maybe so is my father!"

"Mirami," Gladion's soothing voice reached her over the Skulls' chatter and Sin and Val's urgent whispers. "We'll save your brother, I promise. And I have records of every fairy the Skulls have targeted. We'll go over them together after..."

"You mentioned ultra beasts!" a Skull shouted. "We hail the ultra beasts!"

"I am like an ultra beast, child of diamonds," announced an older, gruff voice. Guzma was a few years older than the champions but his hair was already whitening from the tips. A gaudy skull hung from his neck. "I have an ultra power, and I will raise my people when those with darker powers conquer Alola. Will you stand with us?"

Guzma glared at Jun, who mouthed, What?

"Or will you stand against us?"

Gladion's fingers twitched towards the hilt of his shortsword, and this time, Mimi placed her hand over his to stop him. He blinked at her and then turned back to Guzma. "I want to be your ally, Guzma, but not for the side you're on now."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You're not an Aether scientist, but you have more street knowledge than anyone else on Alola." Guzma scoffed, and Gladion continued, "The ultra beasts took our friend and are holding him in their realm. My mother can open a portal to the ultra realm—she did it before to capture Nihil—but without the Tapu, we don't stand a chance against the ultra beasts, especially when they have a hostage. But you know someone who can help us. I can tell from your eyes."

Guzma's dark eyes only looked shifty to Mimi. She couldn't read his expression, but she trusted Gladion. What other choice was there? As much as she wanted to rescue Kalai, she didn't want to push the champions into a suicide mission.

"So I know someone," Guzma admitted. "I expect something in return."

"Diamonds?"

"Your loyalty."

Gladion hesitated, and Jun spoke up. "Would you trust Gladion if he pledges his loyalty to you? He already abandoned you once, what's stopping him from leaving again? This is a matter that should be settled in battle. If Gladion wins, then you give us all the information you know about whomever can help us. If you win, then I'll vouch for my friend's allegiance to the Skulls."

Guzma spat out a wad of tobacco, making Mimi wrinkle her nose in repulsion. She wished she could take off her mask to show Guzma how disgusted she was, but the satisfaction would only last for a second before he'd die. "You're staking your life, Juniper."

"I know."

Gladion looked at the plant type champion. "Why are you doing this?"

"I don't know you as well as I should, given that we've worked together for a year," Jun confessed, "but I know you won't lose."

"Good enough." Gladion unsheathed his shortsword. Val pulled Mimi toward her and Sin as they stood with Jun and the Skulls to form a ring around Gladion and Guzma.

The Skulls' boss glared at the surrounding crowd. "Anyone who interferes gets Pluma's poison whip. I'll ask her to take your fingers first so it takes longer for you to die." After relishing the Skulls' frightened nods, he invited Gladion to make the first move.

Gladion didn't even have time to raise his shortsword before Guzma lunged at him with formidable speed. The slower fighter flew to the edge of the ring and skidded on his elbows before rolling back upright.

"You said he could have the first move!" Sin shouted.

"That's up to him," Guzma said with a chuckle. He waved his fingers around to collect snowflakes and freeze them into sharp points. Gladion pointed at his opponent's hand, and the tiny ice needles shattered like mini fireworks—Mimi supposed they'd be called iceworks. "Aww."

Guzma raised his leg to block Gladion's sword. The Skull boss's black-and-white boot clanked like steel. Fists connected, and the men hissed in pain. They kept up with each other, and more iceworks surrounded their fighting. Mimi was proud of Gladion for standing against someone with ultra powers on his own.

Gladion yelled in shock when a puddle of water trapped his foot. Guzma lifted his right hand, and a long spear of ice materialized in his grip. The younger fighter thrust his shortsword into the ground and struggled to free himself, and Guzma lunged, victory secure.

Gladion ducked and pried his sword out of the ground to trip Guzma, who flew over his head and landed on his face in the snow. His ice spear shattered. A fragment struck Mimi's mask, and Sin cried out, "One got in my eye!"

Gladion held his sword at the nape of Guzma's neck. "Tell us what you know."

"It's not about what I know," Guzma growled. "It's what your father knows, stupid heir. Has he been gone for so long that you forgot he existed? Or that he's a scientist with as much merit as his wife? Slasher Null created the jewel of Alola using metal with memories of life above ground from up to five hundred years ago. That metal is called soulheart, which your father imbued with life energy. The mechanical life that resulted is named Alila."


	15. Kill the Sun

Mimi didn't know much about fathers, especially since the only ones she knew of were failures: Tar and Mud impregnated hostesses but pushed away responsibility; Slasher disappeared after hearing his son would die in seven years and only returned after the champions defeated the Tapu; she suspected Malu was not as kind to Kalai as their mother had hoped; and her own father abandoned his family for the greater pleasures of the Otherworld. Someday, she'd confront him. She would travel to the Otherworld, explore her fatherland, and perhaps come to understand its appeal.

Nothing could excuse leaving your family behind. Slasher Null seemed to finally realize that. On the way to Aether, Gladion recounted his father's stories—rescuing trapped monsters, exploring the world, escaping a high-security prison after being falsely accused. Mimi's favorite was when Slasher snuck out of Kanto after escaping aforementioned prison by hiding in an empty musical instrument case.

Lusamine and Slasher were laughing over an inside joke when Mimi and the champions passed by the kitchen. "Gladion!" Slasher beckoned his young adult son and offered him a chalice half-filled with sparkling liquid. "You brought friends! I was beginning to think your coworkers were your only friends."

Gladion chuckled and took a handful of crackers. "You're not wrong, Dad. The five of us are working together on a project, so we're essentially coworkers. We're researching properties and potential functions of soulheart. Can we interview Alila?"

Slasher's dark eyebrows lifted almost to his silver-blond hair. Mimi found that most older men who frequented the Cog had receding hairlines, but everyone else in Alola seemed to do fine. She guessed something in the food served by the Cog damaged hair. "I have a hypothesis for your next big project," Mimi whispered to Jun as Slasher led the group upstairs.

"I'm excited to work on it. I'll make sure to credit you, too."

"Cog food makes hair move backwards on men's heads."

Jun looked at Mimi in dismay. "I, uh, think it's more than the food, Mimi."

"You're right. Gold is a tacky color."

After the third flight of stairs, Slasher opened a trap door in the ceiling. A rope ladder dropped down, and he tugged it to test its strength. "Come to the nursery if you need me. Lusamine and I will be with Emma."

Val grabbed Gladion's arm as Jun began climbing the ladder. "Emma is your baby sister? She sounds precious."

"Her full name is Requiem, and she is a nightmare."

Sin grunted and pushed between Val and Gladion. "All babies are."

"That's because people make life a nightmare for them," Mimi argued as she climbed over Sin. At the top, Jun helped pull her up. He also helped Val and Gladion but ignored Sin, who huffed and puffed as he squeezed his bulky shoulders through the attic's entrance.

A metallic hominid clinked as it turned in short, jerking motions to face them. She balanced on the tips of her toes. The iron skirt of her dress was spherical and dense; as a fairy, Mimi could feel the iron's vibrations like heat on her hands and neck. Electrum adorned the metal like fingernails. The body of her dress resembled rusted copper, a soft contrast to the dark iron. Electrum lashes framed her opal eyes as Alila blinked and curtsied haltingly. She creaked and jerked, but held a tiny metallic hand out when Gladion and Jun reached to catch her.

An opal-and-copper disc behind Alila's head split from the bottom into semicircles that formed a pretty bow that Mimi wanted to touch. Val cooed at the doll-like figure. Gladion genuflected before the jewel of Alola. "Hello, Alila. My name is Gladion Null. My father created you." He smiled. "It's like you're my sister, but you're much quieter than Requiem."

The attic lit up, but no one had moved. It must have been a delayed motion sensor, but then Slasher pulled himself up into the attic. His hair color was closer to Gladion's, a pale yellow like the custard in the Cog's cream puffs that probably caused receding hairlines.

Slasher walked through Mimi and sat beside Gladion. Instead of the doll-like Alila, a pile of gears and pieces of soulheart lay before him.

This is a memory, Mimi realized. Alila was showing them her memories.

A little boy with Slasher and Gladion's coloration followed his father into the attic. "Dad, you said you'd play ball with me today!"

Gladion winced. "I almost forgot about that."

The younger Gladion tugged his father's sleeve. "Come and play, Dad! You always try to fix that scrap metal but you need a break and I want to play."

"I'll play with you later, son. The sun isn't going away anytime soon," Slasher murmured without looking away from the gears he was welding together. "Don't touch that, Gladion, you'll cut yourself. This isn't a playground for children. Go play with Hau."

"He's four years old and takes naps," 6-year-old Gladion complained. "Besides, I want to play with you."

"Later, son," Slasher repeated. "The sun isn't going away..."

"I wish I could kill the stupid sun," muttered Gladion, both the child and the adult. "Then you'd finally stop ignoring me."

The memory faded. Alila creaked into a deep curtsy and remained as though waiting for an order.

Mimi didn't know much about fathers, but it seemed like they were all failures—not because they wanted to be evil and miserable, but because no one was perfect. Kalai wasn't the perfect brother. Mimi probably wasn't the perfect sister, either, but she tried, and she knew Kalai was trying, too.

Jun put a hand on Gladion's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I had a lonely childhood, too."

Alila creaked as she straightened up. Instead of the attic, they found themselves in the heart of Alola's forest. A little boy declared himself the hero of the forest and leaped off a low branch. Pale brown and white wings flapped to slow his landing.

Mimi glanced between the hazel-eyed boy's thin, beautiful wings and the man's heavy, burned feathers. Jun is half-shadow now, Mimi remembered Sin's joke that Jun losing his wings meant he lost part of his magic, too. Energy had flowed through Juniper's pale wings, and losing that connection must have been like having an arm amputated.

"Stop playing around, Jun," an older woman reprimanded the child with a gnarled cane. "You need to show Hala and Kukui you have potential so they'll choose you to be a champion. The Deciduspawn family depends on you to bring honor and rubies to support your siblings and cousins so they can have a better life."

Young Jun nodded, earnest. "Yes! I am Juniper Deciduspawn and I will be my family's hero as well as Alola's!" A boy his age ran by, and he called out, "Dartri, let's race to the oak—the loser has to do the winner's chores!"

Dartri grinned at the challenge and took off, his darker wings not as refined as Jun's. The matriarch beat Jun with her cane again before he could follow. "I told you to stop playing around. You are Juniper Deciduspawn, Decidu's spawn and Decidu's pawn."

"Did you just repeat my name three times?"

"It's important. Remember your stories? Anything repeated three times is important."

Jun stared forlornly after Dartri. "I know training to be a champion is important, Grandmother, but I want to play, too."

"Stop. Playing. Around." Juniper snarled at Alila as his grandmother yelled at his younger self. The memory vanished as Alila cowered from Jun. Sin turned away from them as Val reached to console Jun—and then hesitated. Mimi understood. She valued her own privacy, too. "Tell us how to defeat the ultra beasts."

Kill the sun, Alila repeated Gladion's words in a piano-like voice.

"That's useless," Jun snapped.

"Wait," Gladion said. "I said that because I wanted my father to acknowledge me. Maybe Alila means we need my father's assistance to defeat the ultra beasts, like we needed my mother to help us cure Hau."

Not Slasher Null, Alila said the name with solid chords, nor Lusamine Silvale Null. This name was a trill instead of a chord. You need to find the ancient sun chief of Alola.

"Solga Steel," Jun exclaimed. "The Steelspawn family was descended from him, but they all perished last epoque during the first floods."

"Solga was the chief three hundred years ago," Val said. "How are we supposed to find him?"

"We're dead," Sin lamented.

No, Alila said, and neither is he. Her voice's deceptive cadence unfolded the next memory, which brought them to an umber island of sand dunes and kopjes, and a grand alter that led to the sun.


	16. The Sun Chief

"It's magnificent, isn't it?"

Mimi turned to the woman beside her. The stranger's squashed nose twitched as she smiled. Her braids flared at her shoulders like a short veil. On her throat was a birthmark in the shape of a hoofprint.

"My name is Hapu."

"Mirami."

Hapu's cobalt eyes sparkled. "Like the poem 'My Eyes'?"

"I haven't read it."

Hapu's broad nose twitched again. "Oh, but you must. It's a classic that haunts me to this day, and I was younger than you when I first read it. It's about a little girl like you who can see into the distant past and a thousand different futures. What do you see, Mirami?"

"I see you." Mimi turned back to the alter. She'd never seen one in real life; they were all supposed to be destroyed, too representative of strict traditions that would offer solace now. "There's a long staircase with holes on the side. I used to have a dao with a hole, too." She reached for the empty space her beloved weapon used to occupy before continuing, "At the top is a pedestal with the symbol of the sun chief. Four spikes frame the head like a crown. He has three eyes and one limb like the Cog's cat."

"Whose cat?"

"The City of Gold," Mimi explained. "Everyone knows it's the best and the worst of Alola. The music is splendid, and so is the food, but the decorations can damage your eyes and probably your hairline."

Hapu looked scandalized. "I've never heard of such a place. Are you sure it's in Alola?"

Mimi remembered Hapu's description of "Mirami" and Alila's disturbing power. With the sun chief's alter and the warmth that made Mimi squirm in her jacket, it made sense that she was in the distant past. But where were the others? Everyone had witnessed Gladion and Juniper's lonely childhoods. Now they were nowhere to be seen as history unfolded and they had the opportunity to follow Alila's advice and kill the sun chief.

"Where is Solga?" Mimi demanded.

Hapu's large nose expanded as her nostrils flared. "Our reverent sun chief is out hunting. Even he has to eat, and no one will feed him."

"Because this world is only for the strong," Mimi realized. Solga supported the ultra beasts' ideals, which must be why Alila wanted her and her friends to target him.

When Hapu picked up her basket of grapes, she swayed and brought a hand to her head.

"Are you okay?" Mimi's voice was drowned out by another woman's.

"I'm fine, Acela," Hapu said, her nose twitching as she smiled at the shorter woman. "The heat must be getting to me, but I am still capable of foraging and preparing my meals."

Mimi watched Hapu and Acela retreat into the undergrowth, and then ascended the alter. Dust coated the scepter and a thick book bound by woven grass and leaf stems. Heat pulsed at her fingers when she reached to open the book, whose pages were made from finely hammered iron. She pulled on the leaf binding to open to a random page.

"Four rules bind Alola to the soulheart. First, do not kill or injure a living creature unless it is necessary for survival and self-preservation." Her voice turned bitter as she read the last few words. She hadn't meant to kill Demyse. It was her curse. But every day, Guzma's Skulls hunted fairies for sport. The champions had ended the Tapu because they thought it would preserve their people's dignity, but the Tapu had never intended to hurt Alola. They were Alola's protectors. But Kalai had taken Mud's fingers out of spite. Every day, people hurt each other for fun, out of anger, or boredom or passion. She yearned for the era when such callous actions were forbidden.

"Second, do not attempt to hide or falsify abilities. All Alolans should know and understand each other's power for the benefit of a cohesive whole." Kanto had come up with the typing system to classify everyone's power, but some didn't fit. There were people classified as light or dark type but their ability to create sensory illusions extended beyond sight; they could make you hear music in silence, smell the ocean in a desert, and think you were stroking a soft skitty when a cacnea's needles punctured your skin. How did you classify Mimi's disguise, Gladion's nullification, or Kalai's thievery? Then again, the rule didn't state there needed to be a set number of types, only that people should strive to understand other powers. Where would their society be if, instead of fearing being robbed, people strove to learn about her brother's power? And instead of treating her as an enigma, people asked her about how her disguise worked?

"Third, do not seek to destroy, but to preserve. Appreciate the intent that the creator had upon the emergence of the creation's existence." Mimi closed her eyes and exhaled. She pressed her palm to the oak pedestal. In her era, this alter would not exist, not because of a failure to preserve but an urge to destroy. If Kukui and the champions knew why the Tapu existed and what they defended Alola from, would they have fought them? Yes, Mirami knew. Though her earliest memories were of sunlight, she had grown up in an epoque of rain, of tension and excitement at the permanent end of the Tapu. Alola despised the notion of traditions; the anarchy offered by the ultra beasts would have been tantalizing. Now that they were in an epoque of instability and uncertainty, the ultra beasts' ideals didn't seem so appealing anymore.

Mimi opened her eyes and continued reading. "Fourth, do not accept outsiders. They bring trouble and terrible ideas."

The wind slammed the book shut for Mimi, though she caught a glimpse of text about leviathans and majestic creatures and heroes conquering monsters.

When she looked up, she was at eye level with a man several stairs from the top of the alter. His three brilliant blue eyes reflected the sunlight. He had all his limbs intact, but a tail flicked in expectation as he stared at Mirami.

Mimi spoke first. "Your wisdom would benefit my people."

"Words don't benefit anyone," Solga retorted in a low growl. "I used to think staying true to the soulheart would keep us from being primal beasts, but then an ultra beast visited me. She showed me the limitless potential we can achieve by accepting our primal states."

The only female ultra beast Mimi knew was Kartana, who didn't seem like the type to approach anyone to recruit them. Kartana was more of a scout, a spy, and an invincible fighter—but not a leader. None of the ultra beasts who had attacked the priestesses' home seemed like a competent leader. "What's her name?"

"Requiem."

Solga unsheathed a broadsword. The heat that emanated was greater than the fire Mimi had run into. This was sunsteel, the most dangerous metal to fairies. It was the metal that had cursed her face. She screamed.

"Mirami!" Gladion caught her when she fell. She shoved her masked face into his cashmere sweater, digging her fingers into the soft material. "What happened? Where did you go?"

"Where did you go?" Mirami snarled. "I was alone on the alter. I faced Solga Steel. He has a sunsteel sword—the same blade that cursed my face."

"No," Gladion said, and Mimi's hood slipped off as she looked up at him. "You are not cursed, Mirami."

His fingers brushed her scarred face as he began to lift her mask. "No!" Mimi screamed and pushed him away. "You'll die if you look at my face. I made myself faint when I saw my own reflection."

"Gladion is immortal, remember?" Sin spoke up.

"Trust me, Mirami." Gladion crouched and removed Mimi's mask. He blinked when he saw the brown-and-violet asymmetry, but smiled. His hands stroked her uneven skin, and his thumbs rested on the ends of her lipless mouth.

Mimi whispered, "What do I look like?"

Gladion's pale green eyes flickered up to meet hers. "You have amber eyes like your brother, but you are more beautiful."

Mimi put on her mask again, but she let Gladion see her smile before she hid her face.

After giving them a few quiet moments, Val said, "We didn't climb the alter. We crossed the kopjes and met the person who has kept Solga alive for centuries."


	17. Death Defying - Primeval Poppyspawn

We are but dust and shadows. We are born from the earth and to the earth we will return. Aether might be on a quest to defy that natural process, but another has already figured out the secret to halting the cycle.

Alters don't interest champions who spent an epoque training to defeat the ones that alters are dedicated to. I turned my back on the sun chief's arcane symbols and headed for the sand dunes. Sin, Jun, and Gladion were with me, but we couldn't find you at all, Mimi. Perhaps Alila thought you shouldn't see this memory; we didn't think she'd want to show you something else, or that you'd take the time to ascend the sun chief's alter.

A harras of mudsdale stamped their hooves as we approached. The stableboy explained, "Hapu and her friends usually ride them around this hour, but they aren't here now and the creatures are impatient."

"Mudsdale need to feel the wind through their manes," Jun said. "Gladion and I have colleagues who keep mudsdale to ride for fun sometimes, and they pay people to ride for them if they're busy."

"Do you know how to ride a mudsdale?" Gladion asked.

Jun smiled like he was trying to be modest, but his chest puffed with pride. "Faba hired me a couple of times. I'm a natural."

"Ceruli and I went rapidash riding for her birthday," I added. "I... can manage."

Gladion patted our shoulders. "Then let's ride."

"You didn't ask me if I could ride," Sin whined, but added, "but obviously I can do anything Val can."

"You're strangers," the stableboy protested. Glaring at Gladion, he added, "And you're an outsider."

"I'm an Aether research associate," Gladion informed the boy dressed in rags. "There are no such things as outsiders in Alola—only rich and poor."

"That's what our chief has wanted since meeting the strange ultra beast," the child murmured, clutching his head and wandering away. "The sun chief used to care about Alola... what am I rambling about? Alola cares for itself."

I looked at Sin. "Someone should watch over him."

"Why does it have to be me?"

Gladion spoke up, "He'll be fine. Look, he's going home."

The boy entered a small hut and bolted the door. Satisfied, I put a hand on the nearest mudsdale. She nickered and relaxed into my touch. I raised a leg and slipped my boot into the stirrup and boosted myself onto the seat. Jun and Gladion followed suit with two of the other mudsdale. Sin grasped at the fender and seat jockey and rammed his face against the pommel. I think he almost climbed on backwards. When we finally started riding, though, he was the fastest.

After riding straight for ten minutes, we found a lone rider to the left. He disembarked from his mudsdale to let it drink from the river.

"Do you think he knows about the ultra beast?" I wondered, and we veered over to ask. Mudsdale lean when they turn, and I gripped the thick mane to avoid falling.

Despite the sun's warmth, the man wore a dark cloak. His hood fell back when he turned, revealing Aether-light hair. His eyes gleamed so brightly I had to look away. Jun compared it to burning magnesium; I thought it was like trying to look at the sun. He must be the ultra beast the stableboy mentioned, because he would want to advocate for outsiders.

The ultra beast fled from us, abandoning his saddle-free mudsdale by the river. He leaped into the water but did not get wet. A slipper touched a fallen leaf and he rebounded like a Cog-trained dancer. I should have stopped him, but I was too amazed. He hopped on three separate leaves before reaching the other side of the river. I thought, this is how we're supposed to walk on water. There's no need to manipulate it to our will if we can defy its tug on us.

"Val!" Gladion snapped me back to reality.

"Got it." I raised the water to carry us over to the ultra beast.

Sin grabbed him from behind and pinned him to the ground. "Who are you? Why did you try to flee?"

His last word broke like a glitch, and the man's dark cloak fell away as he bowed theatrically, two feet away. His prism-like clothing was gaudier than the diamond suit Gladion wore to last year's celebration.

"I am Death Defying." The prism-clad man's teeth shone like pearls. "You can call me Necros."

"Where's Solga?" I demanded. "What are you doing to him?"

Necros seemed to grow taller in his anger. "Solga, like all life, is a vessel for light that will only grow throughout the ages. The Alolans prayed for an immortal ruler, so I gave them one. I can make the four of you immortal, too. I recognize the greatness in you—you who were destined to kill Solga's enemies."

"I'm already immortal," Gladion replied.

"I don't want a parasite living inside me," Sin added.

"We are heroes, not gods," Jun declared.

"We don't want immortality," I told Necros. "And we don't want the anarchy you and the other ultra beasts bring. We want an island of culture and diversity, without being rooted to archaic beliefs and rituals. The Tapu were wrong to expect people to worship them, but we will carry their mission and preserve Alola's dignity by keeping our country from falling to primitive beasts."

When Necros's eyes weren't radiant like the sun, they were dark shards of flint. "You want the fruit but not the roots. Do you know how trees work?"

"Jun is the plant type; I'm a water type."

"Yet water represents life and ritual." Necros dipped his fingers in the river behind him. "Are you sure you do not want immortality? By becoming vessels of abundant light and unending life, I—no, we will become all-powerful."

"We can be powerful without forcing others into submission," Jun said.

"I need light to be powerful," Necros retorted. "I need life. If you refuse me, then there is another who holds as much light as all of you combined, for she was conceived on the night of the Tapu's deaths."

"Requiem," Gladion realized. He grabbed Necros and shook him. "What do you want with my sister?!" Sin's hands ignited, Jun summoned grass to coil around Necros's ankles, and I suspended the river in a tide over the ultra beast.

"I want nothing to do with her," Necros assured, with a contemptuous scoff at our elements. "Solga will fuse with her and their light will multiply infinitely. There will be enough to last millennia."

"You won't use my sister to make yourself a god!"

Necros's clothing reflected light and burst through our elements. My tide turned to drizzle that formed a rainbow with the sunlight and refracted from Necros's body. "Would you rather keep her mortal? You will watch her die."

"Aether will preserve her as it has done for me. She doesn't need you—her life is not meant to serve you."

Necros didn't respond. He vanished in a burst of radiance that washed away the ancient lands and returned us to Gladion's attic—and you.


	18. Fall to Monstrosity

A shrill scream penetrated the attic. "My sister is in danger!" Gladion shouted. He yanked open the trap door and dropped down without bothering with the rope ladder. His boots thudded on the marble floor, and he took off at a sprint without looking back. The air sizzled as portals from another realm opened. Energy transferred between worlds; without solstice or midnight to stabilize it, Gladion could feel the energy vibrating around him. "The ultra beasts are here!" he shouted over his shoulder. He trusted Mirami and the champions to handle them and protect Alola, despite their defeat in the priestesses' home.

This time would be different. They had the soulheart. Tzwol had lost an eye, and who knew what chaos Kalai caused in the ultra realm. Most importantly, Solga, Necros, and the ultra beasts needed each other. Solga relied on Necros to stay immortal; Necros needed powerful beings like Solga and the other ultra beasts for his own immortality; and while the ultra beasts had incredible abilities, Necros could feed them with more—and in the world of their ideals, they would need infinite power to stay on top.

Necros stood in his path, his black cloak made of a reflective material that resembled glass. Gladion unsheathed his shortsword and prepared to attack.

Necros turned his back on Gladion, whose sword struck the obsidian cloak. Necros continued turning, using the momentum to sweep Gladion's feet from under him. Necros's cloak burst into a thousand obsidian shards that bounced along the hallway. His prism suit blinded Gladion.

"You could be as radiant as I!" Necros declared, proudly displaying his gaudy suit.

Gladion kicked with both legs. Both men landed on the rolling fragments of Necros's shattered cloak, and they hopped around to keep their balance. Necros's suit distracted Gladion so he couldn't aim his sword. The ultra beast cackled as Gladion's shortsword missed again.

"Young Master Null!" a maid exclaimed after closing a door behind her. She gripped the baby bottle so tightly, milk spurted out.

"Evacuate the house, Marga," Gladion ordered. "It isn't safe here now."

Necros ducked, his shining eyes following Marga's path. "She must have come from the nursery!"

He vanished in a burst of light, but Gladion wasn't fooled. Necros turned himself into a wave that could flow through barriers, but Gladion didn't need fancy tricks to get the job done. Anti-magic was more efficient, anyway. He kicked the door open, though he lost his balance on the cloak's dark gemstones and tumbled into the plush-carpeted nursery.

Lusamine and Slasher faced against Solga and Necros. The Aether presidents were of glittering ivory and diamonds, a more familiar radiance to Gladion than Necros's excessive gaudiness. Solga's brown skin contrasted his ruby-and-gold garments, which must have weighed more than armor as it draped down his back and tail.

Behind Gladion's parents, baby Requiem cried in her rhinestone-adorned cradle. Solga and Necros's stances were directed at the massive cradle, and Gladion tightened his grip on his sword. "You won't hurt my family!"

Necros whirled back to face Gladion again while Solga charged ahead. This time, there was no obsidian to protect the ultra beast. Sunlight from the nursery's sun roof shone on the prism suit. Gladion forced himself to look at Necros directly. His boot struck the gaudy man's spine, and the flat edge of his shortsword whacked his opponent's head. Necros began glowing, but Gladion's harsh stare halted the wave energy.

Necros froze and then shrivelled into a smaller husk of a man. Wrinkles lined his once-smooth face, and his suit hung on his emaciated frame. His eyes clouded over and then darkened. "You took away my light! My light... Solga, help me! Fuse with the child and return my light!"

Slasher picked Requiem up from the cradle and kissed the crying infant before handing her to Lusamine. "Wait for us in the saferoom."

"I can't leave you behind," Lusamine hissed.

"You have to protect our baby," Slasher insisted. "Solga is a steel type, so it's better for me to fight him. Now go!"

Slasher threw himself between Lusamine and Solga. The sun chief's stronger steel dented Slasher's skin, and Lusamine flinched. Requiem wailed into her mother's shoulder. Lusamine's high heels echoed on the marble floor as she fled.

Slasher threw Solga off him and put a flaking hand on his son. "Are you okay?"

Gladion blinked several times, though his head still pounded from Necros's energy. He'd give himself cancer at this rate. "I'm fine."

"My light..." Necros whimpered.

Solga's tail flicked with disgust, the rubies on his armor clinking. "You have no place in Alola, weakling."

"I gave you light! Does your debt mean nothing to you? What about loyalty?"

"Loyalty belongs to a world of traditions, where people remain stagnant as they do the same things and serve the same people."

Gladion remembered Solga's alter. "That used to be your world."

Solga drew out his broadsword, monstrous compared to Gladion's smaller blade. The sunsteel's energy heated the room, and even Slasher and Necros looked afraid. "The pillager who calls himself Death Defying taught me a more magnificent world."

"It's a world of anarchy."

"Liberation!"

"Lost."

"Autonomous!"

Gladion suppressed a smile. Slasher was in position behind Solga, who remained unaware, focused only on his centuries-old fantasy. "It's a world for monsters."

"It's a world for warriors!" Solga roared and raised his fist. In his grip, instead of the sunsteel broadsword, was a rod made from ordinary steel.

Slasher tossed the sunsteel sword from one hand to the other. Sunlight from the sun roof reflected on the shifting blade. The room's temperature rose to an uncomfortable heat that Gladion struggled to quell for himself and his father. Solga and Necros caught on fire.

Necros burned faster, his scream cut short in less than a second. Solga glowed like the light vessel that had given him immortality. The fire burned holes in the knees of his trousers. His golden plates liquefied like wax, and his rubies dripped like blood. His face contorted as he howled in agony.

Gladion had no pity for the sun chief who had mutilated Mirami. "It looks like the sun will die."

Slasher threw down the sunsword, grabbed Gladion's hand, and ran from the burning nursery.

Tzwol couldn't see, but his nose guided the way for him. Rising smoke from the west wing made him turn to the east wing, from which he smelled candy canes and a hint of sunsteel. That was the scent of his enemy, the masked girl who had made him vulnerable. He'd broken her sword, but she'd taken his eye, inviting her brother to take the other one.

Tzwol needed to prove he was still effective without his sight. He sprinted toward the scent of candy canes and sunsteel.

Mirami admired the jagged sword from Aether's weapons room, which had an impressive supply that would have rivaled Lura's. She missed her dao with the hole, but she liked the new crooked blade, too. She wanted to prowl the area and ensure everything was in place, but there was no time for that. Tzwol would be here in seconds, which was why everything had to be perfect the first time around. There was no room for error.

The trap clicked at Tzwol's thundering steps. The ultra beast's war cry turned into a squeal. Mirami tried not to smile.

Tzwol floundered as he tried to dislodge the rattata trap from his foot, which was already starting to swell. His movement pulled on the next part of the trap.

The display crossbow's string pulled its arrow back.

"That archer boy is with you?! I can't smell him!" Tzwol exclaimed.

"He isn't here," Mimi told him. Mimicking Kalai's precision, she inserted the serrated part of her blade through the bow's string, trying to keep her hand from trembling. When she was sure the sword was in the right position, she slashed sideways with all her might. Satisfaction welled in her at the flamboyant gesture.

As soon as the string was cut, the arrow flew directly at Tzwol's nose. He ducked so the arrow struck the bell behind him.

At the chime, a gumball-sized ball bearing slid down. It knocked a row of dominoes, which triggered a spring, which struck a lever. Tzwol's head spun as he tried to follow along, and he didn't notice the pendulum until too late. The great brass gong knocked him out.

Mirami clicked her tongue. "Strength means nothing if it doesn't come with a sharp mind. How disappointing, Tzwol—you're hotter than sunsteel but you have less brains than a jellicent."

At the chime, Alila's gears whirred and her arms creaked as she raised her cannon. Shadows flickered and steel tore at the electrum of her skirt and ribbons as dominoes clattered and her cannon loaded with the sound of a spring's bounce. The gunshot was in sync with the pendulum's majestic gong.

Kartana screamed as her arm blew off. Alila reverted her cannon to a first-aid table. The doll picked up the contortionist, who could no longer twist and fold herself with one limb missing. Alila got to work disinfecting and bandaging Kartana's shoulder. They wanted to apprehend the ultra beasts and study their powers, not kill them like the champions had done with the Tapu.

Kalai lost his balance on the roof of Aether's building at the sound of the cannon. When Viole grabbed him, his skull knocked against the curly-haired boy's clavicle. Kalai pulled them both down to avoid Cephalus's inferno overblast, though the force knocked them off the roof.

Viole clung onto Kalai, who glanced behind him. Holding onto Viole with one arm, he thrust one of khukuri blades backward to drive it into the oak tree. Snow soaked through his jacket, and he cried out as he wrenched his arm to slow their fall.

Cephalus drifted down and landed as gently as a snowflake. Damn fire types, thought Kalai. He couldn't imagine Sin pulling that trick, but he made a mental note to try it later.

"Ceph, we're friends!" Viole exclaimed. "Kalai is your brother!"

"Half-brother," Cephalus and Kalai said at the same time. The fire type grimaced. "Malu was cruel to both of us, but suffering shouldn't bring people together."

If his arm didn't hurt so much, Kalai would have laughed. "You never even met Malu! I lived with him, but you never knew him."

"I knew him through my mother," Cephalus retorted. "She kept photos of him and taught me to avoid people like him—and you look like him: a short, vicious Alolan with eyes full of hate."

"I'm not like him."

"He isn't," Viole agreed. "I grew up with Kalai as my best friend when we were children. He's a troublemaker and a thief, but he's also kind and patient. You think you know your father through your mother's pictures and words, but you don't know him at all if you think Kalai is like him."

Cephalus turned his baleful yellow gaze on Viole. "Do you claim to know him?"

"Kalai made sure I never met him."

Cephalus did his fancy fire trick again, propelling himself to the side this time. "So I should consider myself fortunate for seeing the result of what he did to my mother without getting a chance to—okay, what the hell is going on?" Kalai and Viole were close enough that they could feel the force pulling them, too. Pulling? A thrusting fire should push.

Malu stood at the centre of Aether's grand courtyard, balancing on the edge of the ivory fountain. Snow flew at his outstretched fingers and vanished before touching his scarred skin.

Viole wrapped an arm around Kalai's waist and planted his hand on the oak behind him. Adhesion glued him to the tree. Kalai grabbed Cephalus's wrist as his half-brother began to fly toward Malu's voracity. Cephalus's paler fingers struggled to find grip. His firium ring flew off and joined the snow into the black hole. The fire type's hand went limp as Kalai's grip broke his wrist. Parked cars disappeared due to Malu's voracity, and the oak's roots cracked as the tree slowly got pulled in.

Cephalus's gaze hardened. "Let go," he ordered.

"You're crazy!"

Cephalus grinned. "All ultra beasts are insane, including you, brother."

Kalai pulled Cephalus toward him and Viole, but the fire type raked his nails down his brother's exposed forearm. Kalai's grip loosened enough for Cephalus to fly toward Malu.

Time seemed to slow for a brief second. Fire spiraled around father and son before Cephalus vanished, along with his magic. Finally satiated, Malu leaped backward from the fountain.

Kalai ran after him, but his father disappeared like a shadow outside Aether's grounds.

A shadow-like man shoved past Jun, almost knocking the bow out of his hand. "Kalai?" Jun stared after the retreating figure and knew it wasn't his friend—he was broader, his gait more of a swagger.

"He isn't here," Sin muttered. "They're fighting the ultra beasts, the sun chief, all the big bad guys, while we're stuck leading an evacuation."

"It isn't really an evacuation," Val amended, "and our role is as important as the others'. We're bringing the people to the southern shore and we'll guard them if the ultra beasts escape Aether." With a glance at Jun, she added, "We don't need to fight to be heroes."

Jun smiled at her, though Sin harrumphed. "I like fighting. I'm good at it."

Val looked at him in exasperation. "Is that it?"

Sin threw his arms into the air. "It's the only thing I'm good at!"

Jun decided not to state the contrary, that Sin really wasn't that good of a fighter.

"It's why I wanted to end the Tapu. If I could bask in the glory for the rest of my life like Hala, then I wouldn't need to worry about not having any other skills. But when Jun and Gladion started working for Aether and you enrolled in college, I knew I didn't want to end up like Hala, with nothing but past glories."

"You're in college, too," Val pointed out. "We have some of the same classes!"

"But you're doing so much better."

"I got a C in chemistry, remember?"

"And I failed ancient history."

Jun turned away, sensing this was meant to be private. Val's voice softened. "One failure doesn't define you, Incinera. You have many opportunities to change things. Times are changing."

Mirami, Gladion, Kalai, and Alila walked toward the shore. People cheered at their arrival. Jun caught murmurs of "ultra beasts" and "worse than fairies" as the crowd applauded. Someone shouted, "The champions of this epoque!"

Alila curtsied, Kalai and Gladion exchanged a look, and Mirami raised her hand to silence the island. "There are no longer any champions, nor Tapu. The fairies that remain do not seek to be gods, and should be treated with dignity. Those with ultra powers who remain also do not wish to conquer Alola, and should be treated as equals. Though Alola lives as an independent state, we must not fall to monstrosity. To commemorate our dignity as a nation, we will build an alter—not to four Tapu, who are dead anyway, but to four Laws."

"Laws!" Alolans muttered amongst themselves. "What's wrong with the current system?" "It's backward!" "Anything less would be anarchy!"

"I am Mirami." Her voice, despite her mask, resounded throughout the crowd. "My eyes have seen the distant past. I have climbed the alter of the sun chief and read his Laws, a code of morals that bound his people before he was corrupted. Priestesses, write these down, so all will remember and be held to justice if they disobey."

Reena dipped a quill in ink and nodded at Mirami.

"First, do not kill or injure a living creature unless it is necessary for survival and self-preservation. This forbids hunting fairies for sport or spite."

Guzma and the Skulls were nowhere to be seen. Jun narrowed his eyes. Though they were absent, they would be held to the same standard as the rest of Alola.

"Second, do not hide or falsify abilities. We must know and understand each other's powers. We shouldn't fear what we don't know, because we can learn about it. Ultra beasts do not have 'darker' powers; we have abilities that, if harnessed properly, can benefit everyone. Third, do not destroy, but seek to preserve. Appreciate the creator's intent. We destroyed the Tapu because we didn't know what they were defending us from. Write this down, Reena: these Laws exist to prevent us from becoming the monsters that the ultra beasts wanted us to be so they could conquer us and we'd have no choice but to submit to them. We are a proud country, and these Laws preserve our dignity."

Alola applauded, but Haixing called out, "What's the fourth Law?"

Mirami hesitated before answering. "Things change. Laws can change, too. Nothing is set in stone. Epoques from now, perhaps another set of Laws will better serve another generation. We must be rooted in tradition to bear fruit, but roots can grow, too."

SIX MONTHS LATER

Roots can grow, too.

Mirami wanted to hide from Alola in embarrassment, though she was proud of herself, too. In the months after her declaration and the establishment of Alola's Four Laws, Alola kept itself in check. She didn't know how, but Gladion had convinced Guzma to turn the Skulls into a Lawkeeper force to ensure Alola abided by its new Laws. After wandering lost without a purpose for a year since the Tapu's demise, Alola found a new purpose in seeking to understand what made Viole's adhesion sticky, Kartana's bone structure that allowed her to contort herself like origami, Tzwol's proboscis-like skin that drained energy like it was a flower's nectar.

So much had changed in the past year and a half, and so much more would continue to change. Gladion knocked on her door, a tablet in hand. "I have a lead on your father."

Mirami started packing bare essentials: sanitary and hygiene products, a change of clothes, a bottle-sized water filter.

"Gloette is a handmaid under the Unseelie King's service. She was arrested recently on suspicion that her cousin helps fairies escape the Unseelie Court. If they can find the trafficker, they'll have access to every fairy who has left the Unseelie Court without permission."

Mirami put her hood on as she walked down the corridor. Kalai and Viole waited for her by the stairs, leaning on opposite walls. Viole's pale blue eyes glittered, and her brother smiled.

"It's a tenuous lead since there's a fifty-fifty chance your father came from the Unseelie Court, and you'd have to find the cousin before the Unseelie Court does. Not to mention, Gloette is being held in a high-security prison. The Otherworld is full of dangers as well as wonders, and nothing is for certain."

"You don't have to come," Mirami told the young men.

"You're my sister," Kalai said, flicking one of the floppy ears on Mirami's hood. "And honestly, an adventure to search for your father sounds more rewarding than searching for mine."

Mirami turned to Viole. "And what about you?"

With a grin, Viole grabbed Kalai's gloved hand; his fingers were shorter, but his hand was bigger. Kalai tried to pull away, but their hands were glued together from adhesion. "Oh no, my adhesion is at it again! I guess I'm stuck with you guys."

Mirami giggled. "That's too bad."

Outside, two realmscollided as the sun reached its peak on the longest day. The three friends walkedthrough the courtyard. The Aether institutions and labs faded, replaced by bluetrees with yellow bark. Snow continued to fall, though from a purple sky.


End file.
